Bank of Hawaii Rates & Review

Bank of Hawaii Review

When those in the know rank American banking institutions, Bank of Hawaii is frequently among those they list at or near the very top. However, personal customers are more likely to be interested in the comprehensive range of checking and savings accounts that the bank offers.

The Hawaiian islands may be among the world's most isolated archipelagos, but the last thing anyone could accuse the Bank of Hawaii of is isolationism. It's a fully integrated -- and highly respected -- part of the American banking system with a genuine international presence.

Indeed, the bank, which was founded in 1893 and currently holds $12.2 billion in assets, has a whole display cabinet full of prestigious industry awards and media commendations. For example, in the last few days of 2009, Forbes magazine ran a feature under the headline "America's Best and Worst Banks". In this feature, Forbes ranked 100 banks on a variety of metrics and gave the top ranking to Bank of Hawaii.

Earlier that year, the American Banking Association's ABA Banking Journal listed its top 25 big banks and thrifts (those with assets of three billion dollars or more), and it put the Bank of Hawaii in the number one slot, up from number two the previous year. And it commented: "Bank of Hawaii (BOH) has consistently been a strong performer and has been among the top 5 institutions since 2006."

As one would expect from such an enterprise, Bank of Hawaii (or "Bankoh", as islanders call it) has an unusually broad range of accounts, each tailored to suit the needs of different customers. So, at the time of writing, it has four types of checking account, seven kinds of savings account including a money market account, and a CD which it calls a "Time Deposit account".

All of these are backed by what the bank claims is the most extensive network of branches, in-store branches, and ATMs in the archipelago, along with online and telephone banking services.