Posted on: Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Mall owner, First Hawaiian reach 5-year pact on ATMs

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

The variety of automated teller machines at Ala Moana Center and three other Hawai'i malls owned by General Growth Properties is being reduced under an arrangement to add more ATMs operated by First Hawaiian Bank.

First Hawaiian is adding 18 new ATMs — eight at Ala Moana, five at Victoria Ward Centers, two at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center in Kahului, Maui, and three at Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo, Hawai'i.

Installations begin this week and are expected to be completed by mid-May. As part of the five-year deal, the value of which was not disclosed, many ATMs from competing banks will be removed from common areas at the malls.

Consumers who aren't First Hawaiian customers typically will have to pay fees to use the First Hawaiian machines, a common industry practice. But General Growth said there will be a net increase in the number of ATMs at its malls.

"The additions will provide added convenience for First Hawaiian Bank customers and will also expand access to ATM services for all shoppers at these ... malls," Don Horner, First Hawaiian president and CEO, said in a statement.

Not all rival ATMs will be removed. Bank of Hawaii will be able to keep an ATM in what is now a row of ATMs near Ala Moana's Center Court stage under an existing agreement. Several banks also will maintain ATMs at the 'ewa end of the mall on property owned by Sears, as well as some in-store locations.

Lee Moriwaki, a Bank of Hawaii executive vice president, said General Growth approached several banks with the offer.

"From a consumers' standpoint, we think there is a benefit to allowing multiple financial institutions in the common areas of the shopping malls," he said in a statement.