American Savings Bank benefited from higher interest rates and lower taxes to post a 20.6 percent increase in third-quarter earnings.
The state’s third-largest bank reported Tuesday that its net income rose to $21.2 million from $17.6 million in the year-earlier period.
“(It was) driven by expanding net interest margin, improving operational efficiency and bottom-line benefits of tax reform,” American Savings President and CEO Rich Wacker said.
Wacker also said American Savings’ new headquarters, which is being built at 300 North Beretania St. across from Aala Park, is expected to be completed before the end of the year when about 600 employees will begin to start moving in.
American Savings capitalized on higher rates as its net interest margin, which is the difference between how much it pays for deposits compared with what it charges to lend out money, widened to 3.81 percent from 3.69 percent. The bank’s net interest income gained 8.9 percent to $61.1 million.
The bank also was aided by a new federal law that cut its tax expense by about $3.6 million from the year-earlier period.
American Savings’ loans edged up 1.7 percent to $4.8 billion from the year-earlier quarter while deposits rose about 5 percent to $6.1 billion and its assets increased about 5 percent to $6.9 billion.
During the quarter, the bank set aside $6 million for potential loan losses due to additional loan loss reserves needed for its consumer loan portfolio. In the year-earlier quarter, American Savings’ loan-loss provision was just $490,000 due to the release of reserves attributed to a reduction in its commercial loan portfolio.
Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., parent company of the state’s largest utility and American Savings, will report its earnings on Nov. 7. HEI’s stock rose 44 cents to $37.45 on Tuesday. American Savings announced its financial results after the market closed.
THIRD-QUARTER NET
$21.2 million
YEAR-EARLIER NET
$17.6
ON THE MOVE
The Queen’s Health Systems has named the following new administrator and director:
>> Zach Harris is the new administrator of Ambulatory Services-Primary Care. Prior to joining Queen’s, he was the administrator for the Hawaii Medical Service Association Preventive Care Programs. His other previous positions included director of Ambulatory Services for the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Ore., as well as administrator for Children’s Medical Center’s Neurosciences in Dallas.
>> Colleen Isa is director of System Strategic Workforce Planning & Talent Acquisition. Isa has more than 20 years of human resources experience, including previously having served as manager of Diagnostic Laboratory Services Workforce Planning as well as human resources manager at DLS and CareResource Hawaii.
