In 1858, local businessmen,
Charles Reed Bishop and William A. Aldrich, opened Bishop & Co. This was the first successful banking partnership under the laws of the independent
Kingdom of Hawaii. It operated from a basement room in "Makee & Anthon's Building" on Kaahumanu Street. On the day Bishop & Co. opened, it took in $4,784.25 in deposits. In 1895,
Samuel M. Damon bought Bishop & Co. from Charles Bishop. In 1910, Bishop & Co. bank opened its first branch in
Hilo. It then opened its first
Kauai branch in
Waimea in 1911. In 1919 Bishop & Co. incorporated as the Bank of Bishop & Co. issued by the Bishop First National Bank During the 1920s the bank steadily grew, acquiring the
Bank of Honolulu in 1922, opening a branch in
Kona in 1923, and opening yet another branch on
Lānai in 1924. The bank's growth slowed after it merged with First National Bank of Hawaii, First American Savings Bank, Army National Bank of
Schofield Barracks, and Baldwin Bank (Maui) in 1929. The bank then changed its name to Bishop First National Bank of Honolulu. In 1933, the bank's name became Bishop National Bank of Hawaii at Honolulu. The bank's name changed yet again in 1956, this time to Bishop National Bank of Hawaii. At , it is the tallest building in
Hawaii. In 1997, First Hawaiian merged in Pioneer Federal and the next year merged in First Hawaiian Creditcorp. In the following year, 1998, First Hawaiian merged with
San-Francisco-based
Bank of the West. The surviving company, First Hawaiian, Inc., was renamed BancWest Corporation. Former First Hawaiian, Inc. shareholders owned 55% of BancWest;
Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), former owner of Bank of the West, owned 45%. In 2001, First Hawaiian Bank acquired
Union Bank of California's branch network in
Guam and
Saipan. In December, BNP Paribas completed its acquisition of 100% of First Hawaiian Bank and its parent company BancWest. Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, however, continued to operate as separate institutions. On December 23, 2015, First Hawaiian Bank announced that parent company BNP Paribas was considering strategic options for the subsidiary, including an
initial public offering. On August 4, 2016, shares of the company started being sold on the
NASDAQ. In 2018,
Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) reduced their stake in First Hawaiian to 33.3%, and by January 2019, it had sold its remaining stake. == See also ==