Outlet profile

First Hawaiian Bank newsroom

Corporate/institutional (Hawaiʻi bank communications, not independent journalism)

Owned byPublished by First Hawaiian Bank, the main subsidiary of First Hawaiian, Inc. That company is publicly traded on NASDAQ under FHB, and its shares are held by public and institutional investors. BNP Paribas, which previously owned it, sold its last shares in 2019.

FundingPaid for out of the bank's corporate budget. It carries no advertising or subscriptions, and the bank's revenue comes from lending, deposits and fees.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

First Hawaiian Bank traces its roots to 1858, when Charles Reed Bishop and William A. Aldrich opened Bishop & Co. in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Over time it became Hawaiʻi's largest bank. In 1998 BNP Paribas acquired a 45% interest through a merger that created BancWest Corporation, the parent of First Hawaiian Bank. In 2001 BNP Paribas bought the remaining 55%, making the bank an indirect wholly owned subsidiary. The parent was renamed First Hawaiian, Inc. and listed on NASDAQ in August 2016. BNP Paribas then sold down its stake in stages and exited fully in 2019. As a corporate newsroom, its content is promotional and informational, covering results, branch and product news, sponsorships and community giving. It isn't independent reporting, so it is unlikely to include criticism of the bank. I did not review its recent output closely for any commentary on federal policy; its perspective is that of a regulated financial institution, with an interest in topics such as interest rates and banking regulation.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-13; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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