LIHU‘E — When banks and other financial institutions opened their doors Tuesday morning after the Presidents’ Day holiday, Kaua‘i had one fewer financial institution. Effective yesterday, the City Bank location inside the Ace Hardware Kauai/Ben Franklin Crafts store on Rice
LIHU‘E — When banks and other financial institutions opened their doors Tuesday morning after the Presidents’ Day holiday, Kaua‘i had one fewer financial institution.
Effective yesterday, the City Bank location inside the Ace Hardware Kauai/Ben Franklin Crafts store on Rice Street in Lihu‘e closed.
The merging of City Bank and Central Pacific Bank meant some branches of the two entities near each other, in this case the City Bank inside Ace near the Central Pacific Bank branch at ‘Umi and Rice streets in Lihu‘e, would be closed.
The former City Bank employees at the Ace Hardware location have been offered jobs at the Central Pacific Bank location, which remains open.
Customers of the City Bank branch on Kaua‘i now have to visit the Central Pacific Bank branch located in the Lihu‘e Plaza at the corner of ‘Umi and Rice streets.
Friday was the last day of business at the City Bank branch. During the Presidents’ Day holiday Monday (banks and other financial institutions were closed), Ben Franklin crafts specialist Terri Morita was demonstrating paper-craft items in the area formerly occupied by the service counter of City Bank.
On the outside of the Ace/Ben Franklin location, only the silhouette of where the City Bank sign was, and the ATM machine, remained, but the ATM is not operational. Inside the store, a lonely City Bank bench sat half-covered with merchandise from the bustling Ben Franklin store.
“They were here until Friday afternoon,” Morita said. “But, now they’re gone. They had signs up informing their customers of the changeover, but that’s gone, too.”
Central Pacific Financial Corp. officials announced plans last year to consolidate Central Pacific and City Bank branches in nine overlapping areas, relocate one branch, and begin operating new branches in under-served areas of Hawai‘i as part of their long-range plans for the merger of the two banks.
Those changes occurred starting yesterday morning, when the City Bank located inside the Ace Hardware/Ben Franklin store was no more.
With the merger of City Bank and Central Pacific Bank, the combined bank operates 37 branches throughout the state, with 31 on O‘ahu, two on the Big Island, three on Maui, and one on Kaua‘i.
Central Pacific leaders reiterated their commitment to imposing no involuntary layoffs as a result of the merger, and stated that all current branch employees will have the opportunity to remain in the combined branch network.
City Bank opened its first bank on June 19, 1959, with a staff of 28 people on the corner of Richards and Merchant streets in downtown Honolulu. Its first branch in Kailua, O‘ahu opened in 1961. Today, the bank has branches on O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i, and the Big Island. Other than the closures, City Bank customers should have experienced a seamless transition, bank officials said.
Their account numbers remain the same, and they’ll be able to use their City Bank checks until the end of the year. The newly merged Central Pacific is the state’s fourth-largest bank, with $4.7 billion in assets, $3.1 billion in loans, and $3.3 billion in deposits at the end of 2004. Central Pacific Financial Corp. merged with CB Bancshares Inc. last year in a deal worth $423.1 million in stock and cash.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
