Hawaii Bank
p. 33 · Read in the full issue
takes over Guam
The Bank of Hawaii has almost doubled its assets in Guam by acquiring the Bank of America’s operations in the island. The deal has to be approved by both the government of Guam and the U.S. Government, although neither is expected to offer any objection, and com pletion was expected late in January.
Bank of Hawaii’s president, Howard Stephenson, said his organisation was very pleased to have the opportunity to expand in Guam. “Guam has provided a fine framework to promote itself as an internatio nal finance centre,“ he said. ’’Bank of Hawaii looks forward to continued participation in this strategic direction.”
Bank of America operated two branches in Guam, one at Agana and the other at Tamun ing, with a total payroll of 149, all of whom will now go across and continue with Bank of Hawaii.
The respected Guam news paper Pacific Daily News editorialised on the change saying: ”0f course we hatge to
see the Bank of A,merica pull up stakes and leave Guam.
There is a great deal of sen timental attachment to the once high flying B of A, which was the first commercial bank on Guam after the war At the same time we’re cheered by the news that the Bank of Hawaii will tin Guam that ake up the slack. This is an island bank, one that has had long ties with Guam and Micronesia. It has been here since 1961, and has strong assets, some US$4.5 billion ... it will be a change, but one that shouldn’t slow down growth and progress on Guam...”
Bank of America was repre sented at the announcement by Verone C.Gibb, executive vice president and head of the bank’s Asia division. He said B of A, second-largest bank in the US and one of the ten largest banks in the world, is restructur ing its operations, concentrating its retail operations on the West Coast of the U.S. and turning its international attention exclu sively to wholesaling, i.e. ser
ing other banks and major corporations. ”We have found that Guam doesn’t exactly fit that strategy,” he said. (A similar change has also been made in Taiwan. Bank of America recently took over Seattle-First National Bank, which had a branch in Taipeh.
Under its policy of keeping retail operations within the US mainland, Bank of America sold the Taipeh branch of Sea- First to Australia’s Westpac Banking Corporation).
Bank of America first came to Guam in 1950 at the invitation of the US Navy to take over the war-time Navy operated bank which at the time was the only bank on Guam. Over the years the bank’s presence grew until, at the time of the sale to Bank of Hawaii, the two B of A branches on Guam had com bined deposits of U 5573.9 mil lion and loans out amounting to $51.2 million.
Bank of Hawaii’s single branch reported deposits of $65.9 .million and loans of $97.8 million. Bank of Hawaii is the 86th largest bank in the US, and the largest in Hawaii. It has been operating in the western Pacific since 1959 with related operations throughout Mic ronesia as well as offices in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong.