Profit expands for American Savings Bank

American Savings Bank earned more money from loans during the three months ending June 30, and that helped the subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries boost second-quarter income by 23 percent.

The Hawaii bank reported Monday earning $20.6 million in the second quarter, up from $16.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Richard Wacker, company president and CEO, said in a statement ASB’s latest profit was a record that reflected a healthy Hawaii economy, good operations and tax reform benefits.

The bank’s net interest income, which is the difference between what it pays customers for deposits and the interest customers pay for loans, rose to $59.6 million in the recent quarter from $55.9 million a year earlier.

Other income not related to interest, however, such as service charges and fees, declined to $13.8 million in the recent quarter from $16.2 million a year earlier. ASB said the decrease was primarily due to an accounting change that reduced debit card interchange fees by $1 million as well as less income earned from bank-owned life insurance.

Income after taxes was elevated due to federal corporate tax reductions implemented by President Donald Trump at the beginning of this year. ASB said its tax expense was about $2 million lower in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier quarter because of the tax policy change.

ASB is Hawaii’s third-largest financial institution. At the end of June, the bank had $7 billion in assets, including $4.8 billion in loans. A year earlier ASB had $6.6 billion in assets, including about 4.7 billion in loans.

Deposits at ASB totaled $6.1 billion at the end of June, up from $5.7 billion a year earlier but flat from the first quarter.

ASB reports many more financial details of its operations as part of a quarterly report filed by Hawaiian Electric Industries with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission covering HEI’s performance. HEI, which owns the state’s largest utility, is scheduled to release that information Friday as part of its earnings report.