To Bank of Hawai'i, a welcome home

As corporate Hawai'i suffered through a decade of economic malaise, some kama'aina firms lost patience. If the local economy wouldn't support earnings growth, maybe someone else's economy would.

Among the more spectacular outreach programs was that of the erstwhile Bank of Hawai'i, which changed its name to Pacific Century (a name more evocative of its ambitions than what it does) and expanded into six Asian countries, six South Pacific locations, plus California, Arizona and New York.

The bad news is the parent company of Bank of Hawai'i now must shed $5 billion in assets and 1,000 jobs, becoming smaller, leaner, more responsive to its core customers and shareholders. "Hawai'i is our home," said the bank's CEO, Michael O'Neill. "And it is there that we'll concentrate."

Pacific Century isn't alone in this sort of humbling experience. HEI, parent of Hawaiian Electric, has sought to grow far afield of its roots — that is, power generation and transmission in Hawai'i. Today it is trying to back away from a local barge business as well as power plants in China and the Philippines.

The same difficulties haven't seemed to affect First Hawaiian Bank, which expanded through merger with BankWest to the Western states. But it's frankly been difficult to tell in that merger which corporation acquired which.

However the First Hawaiian and HEI enterprises elsewhere play out, it's nice to have Bank of Hawai'i here — really here — again. Welcome home!