American Savings Bank boosts profit despite reduced lending

Gains from investment securities helped Hawaii’s third-largest financial institution, American Savings Bank, boost its profit by 58% in the third quarter.

The company, owned by Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., said in a financial report Friday that it earned $19.3 million in the July- September period, compared with $12.2 million a year earlier.

American Savings reported that much of the gain was due to income from interest and dividends on investment securities rising to $12 million in the third quarter from $7.2 million a year earlier.

This contribution was part of the bank’s net interest income, which mainly comes from interest and fees on loans after expenses, that totaled $60.3 million in the third quarter and was up from $57.3 million a year earlier.

Another positive contribution to the bank’s bottom line was removing $1.7 million from a pool to cover potential lending losses because of improved credit strength in commercial real estate loans, commercial loans and consumer loan paydowns. In the third quarter of 2020, American Savings increased its provision for credit losses by $14 million.

The bank’s noninterest income, which includes charges and fees, fell in the third quarter to $14.8 million from $19 million a year earlier. This decrease was primarily due to lower mortgage banking income.

Ann Teranishi, president and CEO of American Savings, described the bank’s overall performance in the third quarter as good.

“We’re pleased with our financial results for the third quarter, which reflect continued solid performance and good credit quality, the latter of which drove an additional release of reserves,” she said in a statement.

Loans held by American Savings were worth $5.12 billion at the end of the third quarter, down 6.6% from $5.48 billion a year earlier.

The bank said the decrease was due to $111 million in forgiven federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, as well as declines in the home equity line of credit and consumer portfolios, partially offset by growth in residential, commercial and commercial real estate loans.

Deposits totaled $8 billion, up from $7 billion a year earlier.

American Savings also noted that it paid $12 million in third-quarter dividends to HEI, which is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results Friday.