For the year, the parent company of First Hawaiian Bank, the state's second largest, recorded earnings of $80.3 million, a 4.3 percent increase over 1995.

Excluding a one-time charge of $2.3 million related to federal legislation, the bank's 1996 net income was $82.6 million - the second-best in company history, said Walter Dods Jr., First Hawaiian chairman and chief executive.

First Hawaiian's earnings amounted to 64 cents per share in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 63 cents in the year-earlier period. For the year, the company earned $2.56 per share, up from $2.43 in 1995.

Dods noted that First Hawaiian's 1996 expansion to Oregon, Washington and Idaho gave the company a boost.

"All three states are among the nation's leaders in job growth, and their dynamic economies helped the new Pacific One subsidiaries immediately contribute to our bottom line," he said. "By diversifying this way, we are no longer captives of economic trends in a single market."

The company also disclosed that it is eliminating more than 130 positions through attrition as part of the merging of its Pioneer Federal Savings Bank unit in April. Fourteen Pioneer branches will be closed and consolidated with nearby First Hawaiian branches.

Reflecting First Hawaiian's continued rebound from the state's economic slump of the early 90s, the company reported assets of $8 billion at year end, a 5.8 percent increase from a year earlier. Deposits rose 10.8 percent to $5.9 billion, while loans jumped 10.4 percent to $5.8 billion.

Nonperforming assets totaled 1.68 percent of loans and other real estate owned, a slight improvement from the 1.75 percent reported at the end of 1995, First Hawaiian said.

"Hawaii's continuing slow pace of economic growth continues to frustrate our efforts to reduce this ratio significantly," Dods said.

In Nasdaq trading today, First Hawaiian's shares fell 62.5 cents to close at $33, according to Bloomberg News.