Bank of Hawaii Corp. said Monday that its fourth-quarter profits declined 3.8% from a year earlier, to $39.3 million, or 82 cents a share, as a result of higher credit losses.
Its provision for credit losses more than tripled, to $18.6 million.
Analysts on average had forecast earnings of 87 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Allan R. Landon, Bank of Hawaii's chairman and chief executive, said in an interview Monday that the profit drop was tied to a weakening Hawaiian economy; tourism, as measured by visitors to the state, fell 11.7% in the final nine months of last year.
The state's November unemployment rate nearly doubled from the end of 2007, to 5%.
However, Hawaii "is still better off than much of the country," Mr. Landon said, and his $10.8 billion-asset Honolulu company's core businesses continued to perform well. Fourth-quarter net interest income rose 6.4% from a year earlier, to $106.1 million. Total deposits rose 4.4%, to $8.29 billion.
