First Hawaiian Bank has applied for an IPO

First Hawaiian Bank has submitted its registration statement for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The move comes after its parent company, BNP Paribas, considered the sale of First Hawaiian to generate a higher ratio of capital to assets in order to satisfy rising regulatory requirements. If its application is successful, First Hawaiian will be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol FHB.

First Hawaiian Bank is going public.

The state’s largest bank, filing under the name First Hawaiian Inc., submitted its long-anticipated registration statement for an initial public offering of stock in documentation posted today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In December, First Hawaiian’s parent company, Paris-based BNP Paribas, issued a press release indicating that it was contemplating a sale of First Hawaiian as a way to generate more capital and satisfy a rising regulatory requirement to have a higher ratio to capital to assets.

Since that time, various news reports have indicated that BNP was planning an IPO for the bank, but First Hawaiian and BNP never confirmed that scenario.

First Hawaiian, citing it was in a “quiet period,” declined to comment today.

As of March 31, First Hawaiian had $19.1 billion in assets, $11 billion in gross loans, $16.1 billion in deposits and $2.5 billion of stockholder’s equity. The bank had net income of $65.5 million during the first three months of this year and earned $213.8 million in 2015.

First Hawaiian said in the filing that it planned to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol FHB.