First Hawaiian Bank

First Hawaiian Bank is a regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii at the First Hawaiian Center. It is a subsidiary of BancWest Corporation, which itself is a subsidiary of the French banking company, BNP Paribas. Founded in 1858, First Hawaiian is the oldest and largest (by deposits) bank in the State of Hawaii, and claims to be the second oldest bank west of the Rockies.

The bank currently operates 57 branches in Hawaii, three in Guam, and two in Saipan. According to FDIC records, as of July 14, 2008, the bank's assets are $12,957,489,000. IN all, BancWest now has more than 350 branches in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Guam and Saipan.

History

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• 17 August 1858: Charles Reed Bishop and his partner, William A. Aldrich, opened Bishop & Co. This was the first successful banking partnership under the laws of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii.
• 1890: King David Kalakaua chartered the predecessor of the Pioneer Federal Savings Bank.
• 1895: Samuel M. Damon bought Bishop & Co. from Charles Bishop.
• 1885: Claus Spreckels and William G. Inwin established a bank, Claus Spreckels & Co.
• 1900: First American Bank of Hawaii is established. It was the United States Government's depository in the Hawaii Islands.
• 1906: The Baldwin Bank is founded in Maui.
• 1910: Bishop & Co. bank opened its first branch in Hilo. Claus Spreckels & Co. incorporated as Bank of Honolulu.
• 1911: Bishop & Co. opened its first branch on Kauai, at Waimea.
• 1916: Chinese-American Bank is established as the first bank to serve the Chinese-American community in Hawaii.
• 1917: The Army National Bank of Schofield Barracks was founded out of a branch of Bishop & Co., and took a national charter.
  

  

  Series 1929 $50 National Bank Note of the Bishop First National Bank of Honolulu, Hawaii, precursor to First Hawaiian Bank.
• 1919: Bishop & Co.incorporated as Bank of Bishop & Co.
• 1922: The bank acquired Bank of Honolulu.
• 1923: The bank opened branch in Kona.
• 1924: The bank opened branch on Lanai.
• 1929: On 30 January, the bank announced that it was merging with First National Bank of Hawaii, First American Savings Bank, Army National Bank of Schofield Barracks, and Baldwin Bank (Maui). The bank changed its name to Bishop First National Bank of Honolulu. (First National Bank of Hawaii and the First American Savings Bank were an outgrowth of the First American Bank of Hawaii.)
• 1933: The bank's name became Bishop National Bank of Hawaii at Honolulu.
• 1956: The bank's name changed yet again, this time to Bishop National Bank of Hawaii.
• 1966: The bank acquired Cooke Trust Company.
• 1969: The bank's name became First Hawaiian Bank.
• 1970: The bank opened its first branch on Guam in Dededo.
• 1975: First Hawaiian acquired the 11-branch Hawaii Thrift & Loan, which had been in financial difficulty and turned it into First Hawaiian Creditcorp.
• 1991: First Hawaiian acquired First Interstate Bank of Hawaii (20 branches, $858 million assets), which traced its ancestry back through American Security Bank, which had been established in 1935 as a reorganization of Chinese-American Bank.
• 1992: First Hawaiian acquired East West Bank, which had one branch in Honolulu and one on Maui.
• 1993: First Hawaiian acquired century-old Pioneer Federal Savings Bank (19 branches, $600 million assets). It continued to operate as a separate institution.
• 1996: First Hawaiian acquired 31 branches in Oregon, Washington and Idaho from U.S. Bancorp. It then created a new subsidiary - Pacific One Bank - to hold the branches, with a charter in Oregon.
• 1996: First Hawaiian acquired ANB Financial Corporation (4 branches, $71 million assets), owner of American National Bank in central Washington state. American National's branches eventually became part of Pacific One Bank.
• 1997: First Hawaiian merged in Pioneer Federal and the next year merged in First Hawaiian Creditcorp.
• 1998: First Hawaiian merged with San-Francisco-based Bank of the West, former subsidiary of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP). At the time of the merger, the surviving company, First Hawaiian, Inc., was renamed BancWest Corporation. Former First Hawaiian, Inc. shareholders owned 55% of BancWest; BNP, former owner of Bank of the West, owned 45%.
• 1999: BancWest acquired SierraWest Bancorp, parent of SierraWest Bank. SierraWest (with assets of $900 million) was merged into Bank of the West. SierraWest Bank had 20 branches along the Interstate 80 corridor in northern California and in northern Nevada. The acquisition expanded BancWest into Nevada for the first time.
• 2001: BancWest expanded into New Mexico and Nevada by acquiring 30 former First Security locations (23 in New Mexico, seven in Las Vegas) with $1.2 billion in deposits and $300 million in loans. The branches, which were divested in connection with First Security's merger with Wells Fargo & Company, became part of Bank of the West. The Board of BancWest entered into a merger agreement undeer which BNP Paribas acquired the 55% of BancWest stock it did not already own. First Hawaiian Bank acquired Union Bank of California's branch network in Guam and Saipan (3 branches, $200 million assets). Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, however, continued to operate as separate institutions.
• 2002: BancWest expanded into Southern California with the acquisition of United California Bank from UFJ Bank of Japan. United California Bank, the largest Los Angeles-based bank, had assets of $10.5 billion and 115 branches throughout the state. BancWest merged United California Bank into Bank of the West.

Sources

Pre-1927

Cecil G. Tilton. 1927. The History of Banking in Hawaii. University of Hawaii Research Publications No. 3.

External links

• First Hawaiian Bank website