In Brief: First Hawaiian Opens Mortgage Banking Unit

HONOLULU - department that will focus on financing real estate projects and lending to individual homebuyers. It has hired Russell Rasmussen as a vice president to head the department. He had been an area manager with Weyerhaeuser Mortgage Co. Mr. Rasmussen said the department would target developers, realty agents, and consumers. Donald G. Horner, vice chairman for the bank's retail group, said the bank's mortgage brokerage group, Phoenix Financial Services, would be merged into the new department. Mr. Horner said the added clout would enable the bank to provide a full range of mortgage services to its customers. It says it is already the top mortgage lender in the state.