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View detailsFounded by soldiers who came home to discrimination
Central Pacific Bank was chartered in 1954 by a group of Japanese-American war veterans — many of them members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, the most decorated units in US Army history. These men had fought across Italy and France while their families were interned in camps on the mainland. When they returned to Hawaii, the territory's existing banks — controlled by the white plantation elite — were reluctant to lend to Japanese-American families and businesses.
So they started their own. Central Pacific opened with $800,000 in capital raised largely from the Japanese-American community. The founding was both a financial act and a political one — the postwar generation's refusal to accept second-class economic status. Today the bank holds roughly $7 billion in assets and operates 27 branches across Oahu, Maui, Hawaii Island, and Kauai.
Routing number
Central Pacific Bank's routing number is 321370765. The 321 prefix ties to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. This number applies to all domestic transactions — ACH transfers, direct deposit, and electronic bill payments — across all branch locations on all Hawaiian islands. For wire transfers, domestic and international, contact your branch or use the online banking portal for specific instructions. The routing number is also printed on the bottom-left corner of Central Pacific checks.
Island economics
Banking in Hawaii operates under conditions no mainland institution faces. The state is 2,400 miles from the nearest continent, nearly everything is imported, and real estate prices in Honolulu rival San Francisco and New York. The economy runs on tourism, military spending, and construction — sectors that are cyclical and sensitive to external shocks. Central Pacific has navigated these conditions for seven decades because it understands the rhythms of island life: which Oahu neighborhoods are gentrifying, which Maui construction projects need financing, how seasonal tourism flows affect local business cash management.
Surviving the Great Recession in the middle of the Pacific
The 2008 financial crisis hit Central Pacific hard. The bank had concentrated heavily in construction and real estate lending during the mid-2000s boom. When property values collapsed, nonperforming loans soared, the stock fell from above $30 to below $2, and by 2010 the bank was under a consent order from the FDIC and OCC. It raised $325 million in new capital to stabilize.
Central Pacific didn't fail. New management, aggressive loan workouts, and Hawaii's gradual real estate recovery brought the bank back to profitability. The episode was a reminder that geographic concentration — banking in a single island state — amplifies risk in ways that diversified mainland banks can absorb more easily.
Beyond the islands
Central Pacific was born from a community that refused to accept barriers to economic participation. Slash channels that same principle into business finance — giving companies of all sizes the corporate cards, automated expense tracking, and real-time spend visibility that used to be reserved for enterprises with dedicated treasury departments. Financial infrastructure shouldn't be a bottleneck, wherever your business operates.
