Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (the “Parent”) is a Delaware corporation and a bank holding company headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Bank of Hawaii Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) provide a broad range of financial products and services to customers in Hawaii, Guam, and other Pacific Islands.  The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Parent and its subsidiaries. The Parent’s principal operating subsidiary is Bank of Hawaii (the “Bank”). 

The consolidated financial statements in this report have not been audited by an independent registered public accounting firm, but, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the results for the interim periods. All such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature. Intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. Certain prior period information has been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. Operating results for the interim periods disclosed herein are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full fiscal year or for any future period.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X.  Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and accompanying notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. 

Use of Estimates in the Preparation of Financial Statements

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes.  Actual results may differ from those estimates and such differences could be material to the financial statements.

Variable Interest Entities

Variable interests are defined as contractual ownership or other interests in an entity that change with fluctuations in an entity’s net asset value. The primary beneficiary consolidates the variable interest entity (“VIE”). The primary beneficiary is defined as the enterprise that has both (i) the power to direct the activities of the VIE that most significantly impact the entity’s economic performance and (ii) the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits that could be significant to the VIE.

The Company has limited partnership interests in several low-income housing partnerships. These partnerships provide funds for the construction and operation of apartment complexes that provide affordable housing to lower-income households. If these developments successfully attract a specified percentage of residents falling in that lower-income range, state and/or federal income tax credits are made available to the partners. The tax credits are generally recognized over 10 years. In order to continue receiving the tax credits each year over the life of the partnership, the low-income residency targets must be maintained.

Prior to January 1, 2015, the Company utilized the effective yield method whereby the Company recognized tax credits generally over 10 years and amortized the initial cost of the investment to provide a constant effective yield over the period that tax credits are allocated to the Company. On January 1, 2015, the Company adopted ASU No. 2014-01, “Accounting for Investments in Qualified Affordable Housing Projects” prospectively for new investments. ASU No. 2014-01 permits reporting entities to make an accounting policy election to account for their investments in qualified affordable housing projects using the proportional amortization method if certain conditions are met. As permitted by ASU No. 2014-01, the Company elected to continue to utilize the effective yield method for investments made prior to January 1, 2015.

Unfunded commitments to fund these low-income housing partnerships were $12.8 million and $15.2 million as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively. These unfunded commitments are unconditional and legally binding and are recorded in other liabilities in the consolidated statements of condition. See Note 6 Affordable Housing Projects Tax Credit Partnerships for more information.

The Company also has limited partnership interests in solar energy tax credit partnership investments. These partnerships develop, build, own and operate solar renewable energy projects. Over the course of these investments, the Company expects to receive federal and state tax credits, tax-related benefits, and excess cash available for distribution, if any. The Company may be called to sell its interest in the limited partnerships through a call option once all investment tax credits have been recognized. Tax benefits associated with these investments are generally recognized over 6 years.

Although these entities meet the definition of a VIE, the Company is not the primary beneficiary of the entities as the general partner has both the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the entities and the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits that could be significant to the entities. While the partnership agreements allow the limited partners, through a majority vote, to remove the general partner, this right is not deemed to be substantive as the general partner can only be removed for cause.

The investments in these entities are initially recorded at cost, which approximates the maximum exposure to loss as a result of the Company’s involvement with these unconsolidated entities. The balance of the Company’s investments in these entities was $78.9 million and $85.9 million as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively, and is included in other assets in the consolidated statements of condition.

Accounting Standards Adopted in 2019

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, “Leases.” Under the new guidance, lessees will be required to recognize the following for all leases (with the exception of short-term leases): 1) a lease liability, which is the present value of a lessee’s obligation to make lease payments, and 2) a right-of-use asset, which is an asset that represents the lessee’s right to use, or control the use of, a specified asset for the lease term. Lessor accounting under the new guidance remains largely unchanged as it is substantially equivalent to existing guidance for sales-type leases, direct financing leases, and operating leases. Leveraged leases have been eliminated, although lessors can continue to account for existing leveraged leases using the current accounting guidance. Other limited changes were made to align lessor accounting with the lessee accounting model and the new revenue recognition standard. All entities will classify leases to determine how to recognize lease-related revenue and expense. Quantitative and qualitative disclosures will be required by lessees and lessors to meet the objective of enabling users of financial statements to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. The intention is to require enough information to supplement the amounts recorded in the financial statements so that users can understand more about the nature of an entity’s leasing activities. ASU No. 2016-02 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. All entities are required to use a modified retrospective approach for leases that exist or are entered into after the beginning of the earliest comparative period in the financial statements. As the Company elected the transition option provided in ASU No. 2018-11 (see below), the modified retrospective approach was applied on January 1, 2019 (as opposed to January 1, 2017). The Company also elected certain relief options offered in ASU 2016-02 including the package of practical expedients, the option not to separate lease and non-lease components and instead to account for them as a single lease component, and the option not to recognize right-of-use assets and lease liabilities that arise from short-term leases (i.e., leases with terms of twelve months or less). The Company did not elect the hindsight practical expedient, which allows entities to use hindsight when determining lease term and impairment of right-of-use assets. The Company has several lease agreements, such as branch locations, which are considered operating leases, and therefore, were not previously recognized on the Company’s consolidated statements of condition. The new guidance requires these lease agreements to be recognized on the consolidated statements of condition as a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability. The new guidance did not have a material impact on the consolidated statements of income or the consolidated statements of cash flows. See Note 16 Leases for more information.

In August 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-12, “Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities.” This ASU’s objectives are to (1) improve the transparency and understandability of information conveyed to financial statement users about an entity’s risk management activities by better aligning the entity’s financial reporting for hedging relationships with those risk management activities; and (2) reduce the complexity of and simplify the application of hedge accounting by preparers. ASU No. 2017-12 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. The Company currently does not designate any derivative financial instruments as formal hedging relationships, and therefore, does not currently utilize hedge accounting. As such, ASU No. 2017-12 did not impact the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-11, “Leases - Targeted Improvements” to provide entities with relief from the costs of implementing certain aspects of the new leasing standard, ASU No. 2016-02. Specifically, under the amendments in ASU 2018-11: (1) entities may elect not to recast the comparative periods presented when transitioning to the new leasing standard, and (2) lessors may elect not to separate lease and non-lease components when certain conditions are met. The amendments have the same effective date as ASU 2016-02 (January 1, 2019 for the Company). The Company adopted ASU 2018-11 on its required effective date of January 1, 2019 and elected both transition options mentioned above. ASU 2018-11 did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

In December 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-20, “Narrow-Scope Improvements for Lessors.” This ASU (1) allows lessors to make an accounting policy election of presenting sales taxes and other similar taxes collected from lessees on a net basis, (2) requires a lessor to exclude lessor costs paid directly by a lessee to third parties on the lessor’s behalf and include lessor costs that are paid by the lessor and reimbursed by the lessee in the measurement of variable lease revenue and the associated expense, and (3) clarifies that when lessors allocate variable payments to lease and non-lease components they are required to follow the recognition guidance in the new leases standard for the lease component and other applicable guidance, such as the new revenue standard, for the non-lease component. The Company adopted ASU 2018-20 on its required effective date of January 1, 2019 and elected to present sales taxes and other similar taxes collected from lessees on a net basis as described in (1) above. ASU 2018-20 did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

In March 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-01, “Leases: Codification Improvements.” This ASU (1) states that for lessors that are not manufacturers or dealers, the fair value of the underlying asset is its cost, less any volume or trade discounts, as long as there isn’t a significant amount of time between acquisition of the asset and lease commencement; (2) clarifies that lessors in the scope of ASC 942 (such as the Company) must classify principal payments received from sales-type and direct financing leases in investing activities in the statement of cash flows; and (3) clarifies the transition guidance related to certain interim disclosures provided in the year of adoption. To coincide with the adoption of ASU No. 2016-02, the Company elected to early adopt ASU 2019-01 on January 1, 2019. The adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

In April 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-04, “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses, Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and Topic 825, Financial Instruments.” With respect to Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, ASU 2019-04 clarifies that the reclassification of a debt security from held-to-maturity (“HTM”) to available-for-sale (“AFS”) under the transition guidance in ASU 2017-12 would not (1) call into question the classification of other HTM securities, (2) be required to actually designate any reclassified security in a last-of-layer hedge, or (3) be restricted from selling any reclassified security. As part of the transition of ASU 2019-04, entities may reclassify securities that would qualify for designation as the hedged item in a last-of-layer hedging relationship from HTM to AFS; however, entities that already made such a reclassification upon their adoption of ASU 2017-12 are precluded from reclassifying additional securities. The Company did not reclassify any securities from HTM to AFS upon adoption of ASU 2017-12. The Company elected to early adopt the amendments to Topic 815 in June 2019. See Note 3 Investment Securities for more information regarding the impact of the transfer of certain HTM debt securities to AFS. The amendments and pending adoption to Topics 326 and 825 are described in the section below.

Accounting Standards Pending Adoption

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, “Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments.” This ASU significantly changes how entities will measure credit losses for most financial assets and certain other instruments that are not measured at fair value through net income. The standard will replace today’s “incurred loss” approach with an “expected loss” approach known as current expected credit loss (“CECL”), which will apply to: (1) financial assets subject to credit losses and measured at amortized cost, and (2) certain off-balance sheet credit exposures. This includes, but is not limited to, loans, leases, held-to-maturity securities, loan commitments, and financial guarantees. The CECL approach will not apply to AFS debt securities. For AFS debt securities with unrealized losses, entities will measure credit losses in a manner similar to what they do today, except that the credit losses will be recognized as allowances rather than reductions in the amortized cost of the securities. As a result, entities will recognize improvements to estimated credit losses immediately in earnings rather than as interest income over time, as they do today. The ASU also simplifies the accounting model for purchased credit-impaired debt securities and loans. ASU 2016-13 also expands the disclosure requirements regarding an entity’s assumptions, models, and methods for estimating the allowance for loan and lease losses. In addition, entities will need to disclose the amortized cost balance for each class of financial asset by credit quality indicator, disaggregated by the year of origination. ASU No. 2016-13 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and the Company is planning to adopt the standard in the first quarter of 2020. Entities will apply the standard’s provisions as a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the first reporting period in which the guidance is effective (i.e., modified retrospective approach). The Company is continuing its implementation efforts through its Company-wide implementation team. This team has assigned roles and responsibilities, key tasks to complete, and a general timeline to be followed. The team meets periodically to discuss the latest developments and ensure progress is being made. The team has been working with an advisory consultant and has finalized and documented the methodologies that will be utilized. The team is currently developing controls, processes, policies and disclosures in preparation for performing a full end to end parallel run. The Company’s preliminary evaluation indicates the provisions of ASU No. 2016-13 are expected to impact the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements, in particular the level of the reserve for credit losses.  The Company is continuing to evaluate the extent of the potential impact and expects that portfolio composition and economic conditions at the time of adoption will be a factor.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-13, “Disclosure Framework - Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement.” This ASU eliminates, adds and modifies certain disclosure requirements for fair value measurements. Among the changes, entities will no longer be required to disclose the amount of and reasons for transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy, but will be required to disclose the range and weighted average used to develop significant unobservable inputs for Level 3 fair value measurements. ASU No. 2018-13 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019; early adoption is permitted. As ASU No. 2018-13 only revises disclosure requirements, it will not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

As mentioned in the previous section the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-04 in April 2019. With respect to Topic 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses, ASU 2019-04 clarifies the scope of the credit losses standard and addresses issues related to accrued interest receivable balances, recoveries, variable interest rates and prepayments, among other things. With respect to Topic 825, Financial Instruments, on recognizing and measuring financial instruments, ASU 2019-04 addresses the scope of the guidance, the requirement for remeasurement under ASC 820 when using the measurement alternative, certain disclosure requirements and which equity securities have to be remeasured at historical exchange rates. The amendments to Topic 326 have the same effective dates as ASU 2016-13 (i.e., the first quarter of 2020). The Company is currently evaluating the potential impact of Topic 326 amendments on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. The amendments to Topic 825 are effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019 and are not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU No. 2019-05, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326); Targeted Transition Relief.” This ASU allows entities to irrevocably elect, upon adoption of ASU 2016-13, the fair value option on financial instruments that (1) were previously recorded at amortized cost and (2) are within the scope of ASC 326-20 if the instruments are eligible for the fair value option under ASC 825-10. The fair value option election does not apply to held-to-maturity debt securities. Entities are required to make this election on an instrument-by-instrument basis. ASU 2019-05 has the same effective date as ASU 2016-13 (i.e., the first quarter of 2020). The Company does not expect to elect the fair value option, and therefore, ASU 2019-05 is not expected to impact the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.