As part of Bank of Hawaii’s $100 million overhaul of its 64 statewide branches and 22-story downtown tower, the state’s second-largest bank took the wraps off its newly remodeled main branch on Wednesday.
The renovated branch at the corner of Bishop and South King streets features a 7-foot-high by 33-foot-wide digital screen in the lobby just opposite the entrance.
Other new features include free customer Wi-Fi, 10 private rooms to meet with customers, and computer tablets for employees to be mobile and not tethered to a desk. The teller stations have been relocated to the side of the branch instead of in a rectangular central island. “Universal bankers” now will greet customers as they enter the branch and direct them to the proper area for their banking needs.
“When I talk about moving banking into the 21st century, the 21st century is clearly a digital environment and traditional banking is a non-digital endeavor,” Bank of Hawaii CEO Peter Ho said. “Forty years ago, 30 years ago, you’d stand in line and wait for a teller, make your deposit and move on. Now the trend toward self service, the trend toward digital conversion, the trend toward just using mobile and digital devices as information sources is accelerating. So what we have to do is transcend our physical infrastructure to support that.”
Ho said it’s a delicate balance because some older customers aren’t comfortable using mobile phones or ATMs to make transactions.
“We’re more than happy to have them using our teller lines,” he said.
Ho said 8 percent of the bank’s consumer transactions are now going through mobile devices while consumer deposit transactions going through ATMs are now just a little over 30 percent.
“We’re not forcing people to do that. It’s just what they’re choosing to do,” he said.
Palolo resident Eric Shearer, who has been a Bankoh customer for 14 years, checked out the remodeled branch Wednesday.
“The video screen is amazing,” he said. “It’s really futuristic in here, and I really appreciate all the improvements. It’s a huge advance. It’s a little bit more crowded now because of the grand opening, but I get the sense that it will be easier to flow in and out and get my banking done.”
Bankoh has scaled back its footprint on the 10,500-square-foot ground floor of the 48-year-old branch building to just over half its size at 6,200 square feet. Honolulu design firm G70 plans to move its headquarters from nearby Bethel Street into the 4,300 square feet on the ground floor previously occupied by the branch.
“This branch is far smaller than the original branch (following the five-month renovation) ,” Ho said.
“Much of a traditional branch’s square footage is back office, and that’s been replaced by a machine literally the size of a shoebox. Basically, you run checks through that machine and it sends it directly to the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. Previously, you needed big wide open spaces to lay checks out and reconcile and do all that stuff. That space is just no longer necessary. So what we’ve done in many instances is shrink the overall footprint by up to 40 to 50 percent.”
Ho added, “What we do with that space is pay less for that real estate and position that real estate more for sales and consultation and servicing, and less for transactional work.”
The main branch, which had a soft opening on Monday, follows Pearl City (November), Hawaii Kai (March) and Kihei (May) in the bank’s remodeling schedule. Others coming up include Manoa (December) and Pearlridge (January).
Ho said the total cost to transform branches and relocate others into new facilities is $60 million and the cost to upgrade the 100,000-square-foot Bank of Hawaii Tower, which is adjacent to the bank’s six-story branch building, is $40 million. He said the renovations will take more than five years.
