First Hawaiian Bank is introducing a MasterCard Pay With Rewards app for its MasterCard cardholders that will make it easier for them to apply their rewards toward any purchases.
The app will allow cardholders to redeem their rewards for past and future purchases from their smartphone or tablet.
The MasterCard Pay With Rewards app is available for download from the Apple App Store or Google Play. For more information, go to fhb.com/paywithrewards.
Tesla cuts 9% of workers in bid to post profit
DETROIT >> Electric car maker Tesla Inc. is laying off about 3,600 workers mainly from its salaried ranks as it slashes costs in an effort to deliver on CEO Elon Musk’s promise to turn a profit in the second half of the year.
In an email to workers Tuesday, Musk said the cuts amount to about 9 percent of the company’s workforce of 40,000.
Tesla would not say how much money the layoffs would save, but said no factory workers would be affected as the company continues to ramp up production of its lower-priced Model 3 compact car.
“Tesla has grown and evolved rapidly over the past several years, which has resulted in some duplication of roles and some job functions that, while they made sense in the past, are difficult to justify today,” Musk wrote in the email. He thanked departing employees for their hard work and said Tesla is providing “significant salary and stock vesting” to those being let go, based on their length of service.
Tesla has not made an annual profit in its 15 years of doing business, and it has posted only two quarterly net profits.
Charitable giving in U.S. tops $400 billion
NEW YORK >> Fueled by a surging stock market and huge gifts from billionaires, charitable giving in the United States in 2017 topped the $400 billion mark for the first time, according to the latest comprehensive report on Americans’ giving patterns.
The Giving USA report, released Tuesday, said giving from individuals, estates, foundations and corporations reached an estimated $410 billion in 2017 — more than the gross domestic product of countries such as Israel and Ireland. The total was up 5.2 percent in current dollars (3 percent adjusted for inflation) from the estimate of $389.64 billion for 2016.
ON THE MOVE
Hawaii Pacific Health has announced that Brandt Farias is the new senior vice president and chief marketing officer of marketing and public relations. He will oversee all the communications and marketing functions of Hawaii Pacific Health and its four medical centers: Wilcox, Kapiolani, Pali Momi and Straub. Farias has more than 30 years of communications and marketing experience, including having served as director of brand identity and marketing for Ahahui Koa Anuenue as well as executive vice president and marketing director at First Hawaiian Bank.
Diane Ito has rejoined Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, the leading residential real estate brokerage company in Hawaii. She’s working in the firm’s Kahala office as an independent agent as well as a Global Luxury Property Specialist while serving the Manoa neighborhood. Prior to starting her career in the real estate industry, Ito spent 25 years in the garment industry in California and Hawaii.
