First Hawaiian Bank earned a record profit during the January-March period and boosted its loans to an all-time high as it returned once again to fully independent status prior to the end of the first quarter.

French banking giant BNP Paribas, which became a 100 percent owner of the bank in 2001, sold off its remaining 18.4 percent stake in the company on Feb. 1 to complete an exiting process that had begun in August 2016 when it began raising needed capital through an initial public offering.

First Hawaiian Inc., the holding company for the state’s largest bank, said today that net income rose 2.9% to $69.9 million, or 52 cents a share, in the first quarter to match analysts’ consensus estimate. In the year-earlier quarter, First Hawaiian had net income of $68 million, or 49 cents a share.

The bank’s loans increased 5.9% to $13.2 billion from $12.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter due to growth in commercial real estate and residential mortgage loans.