CPB parent makes Top 25

The parent company of Central Pacific Bank was rated as the 25th-best performing bank in the nation in 2001 by the ABA Banking Journal, a monthly magazine published by the American Bankers Association.

In its June issue, the magazine listed the top 100 banks based on their return on average equity, which is a measure of how well a company uses capital to generate earnings. It is derived by dividing net income by average equity.

CPB Inc., the state's third-largest commercial bank holding company, had a return on equity of 19.34 percent in 2001, up from 13.55 percent a year earlier and about 2 percentage points better than the median for the top 100 financial institutions. CPB was the only Hawai'i financial institution in the top 100.

Yesterday, CPB's board declared a second-quarter cash dividend of 20 cents per common share payable July 26 to shareholders of record as of June 28. The dividend is an 11.1 percent increase over the cash dividend of 18 cents a share declared in the previous quarter.