Central Pacific Financial (CPF) Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Central Pacific Financial (CPF -3.08%)
Q4 2021 Earnings Call
Jan 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Central Pacific Financial Corp. fourth quarter 2021 conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in listen-only mode.

Following the presentation, the conference will be open to questions. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay shortly after its completion on the company's website at www.cpb.bank. I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. David Morimoto, chief financial officer.

Please go ahead.

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Charlie and thank you all for joining us as we review the financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021 for Central Pacific Financial Corp. With me this morning are Paul Yonamine, chairman and chief executive officer; Catherine Ngo, executive vice chair; Arnold Martines, president and chief operating officer; and Anna Hu, executive vice president and chief credit officer. We have prepared two supplemental slide presentations that provide additional details on our earnings release and are available in the investor relations section of our website at cpb.bank. During the course of today's call, management may make forward-looking statements.

While we believe these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they involve risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For a complete discussion of the risks related to our forward-looking statements, please refer to Slide 2 of our presentation. And now, I'll turn the call over to our chairman and CEO, Paul Yonamine.

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Central Pacific Financial Corp. We are beginning the 2022 year with much excitement and optimism. Our financial results for 2021 are among our best ever.

In fact, this is the best earnings report since before The Great Recession. Our recently announced executive leadership promotions went into effect starting January 1 and our teams are energized and ready to continue our digital transformation. In addition to our earnings release this morning, we announced the launch of our banking-as-a-service strategy and our team is pleased to share more details today. After an in-depth evaluation of the banking-as-a-service market, we identified an opportunity to enter this fast-growing market in a way that leverages our strength to maximize our impact as a banking-as-a-service provider, we will focus on partnering with select fintech companies to create strategic customized programs resulting a new differentiated financial products.

There is strong demand for this type of banking-as-a-service offering in the market today. We believe this creates a great opportunity for us to expand our reach beyond Hawaii and will drive future revenue generation to increase the value of the CPF franchise. Last quarter, we announced the launch of our new product, Shaka Checking. It is Hawaii's first and only digital bank account from a local financial institution.

Shaka allowed us to test the product development and launch strategies that we will leverage in our future Mainland banking-as-a-service programs. The Shaka account demand has far surpassed our initial expectations. We opened over 3,300 Shaka accounts since its launch in early November. It's obvious Shaka is serving a key need with a younger tech-savvy audience in Hawaii.

It has a strong value proposition that includes getting your paycheck up to two days early, no ATM fees and 24/7 digital convenience, among other benefits. As part of our banking-as-a-service initiative to drive additional growth beyond Hawaii, we are also pleased to announce that we will be making an equity investment and bank sponsorship of Swell, a new fintech company that we played a major role in developing. Swell is scheduled to launch in mid-2022 and we believe will provide a differentiated product offering that the market needs today. Swell's mission is to provide retail banking services to people via one integrated app that includes the digital checking account with a line of credit.

Elevate is another equity investor in Swell and will be providing the systems and servicing for the Swell line of credit. There is a revenue-sharing agreement in place between Swell, Elevate and CPF. And Elevate is also providing a credit enhancement structure to us. We are currently evaluating additional banking-as-a-service partnerships to create even more value for CPF and plan to announce further developments later in 2022.

Finally, we are announcing the exciting new banking-as-a-service initiative. We remain committed to Hawaii and are continuing to build a successful and profitable franchise here. Here to talk about the Hawaii economy and our strong position here is Catherine Ngo, our executive vice chair. Catherine?

Catherine Ngo -- Executive Vice Chairman

Thank you, Paul. I'll start by giving an update on the Hawaii environment. We were pleased to have a strong visitor holiday travel season with the daily average air arrivals over 25,000 in November through December. Our statewide unemployment rate continued to decline and was at 6% in November 2021.

And while we were not immune to the COVID case spike related to the Omicron variant, our state has been able to manage through it, particularly as our vaccination rate is strong at approximately 75%. We have also not seen any significant slowdown in Hawaii business activity or investment due to Omicron. The housing market in Hawaii remains very hot with our median single-family home price holding at just over $1 million. Overall, the Hawaii economy remains on track for recovery.

Our asset quality continues to be very strong with nonperforming assets at just 8 basis points of total assets as of December 31. Additionally, total criticized loans were at about one and a half of total loans. Finally, during the quarter, we had net recoveries of $900,000. I'd like to now turn the call over to Arnold Martines, our president and chief operating officer.

Arnold?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Thank you, Catherine. In the fourth quarter, our core loan portfolio increased by $183 million or 4% sequential quarter, which was offset by PPP forgiveness paydowns of $127 million. Year over year, our core loan portfolio increased by 10%. The core loan growth was broad-based across almost all loan categories.

Our residential mortgage production continued to be very strong, with total production in the fourth quarter of $354 million as several large condominium projects in Honolulu were completed during the quarter, with CPB leading the takeout financing for the homeowners. Total net portfolio growth in residential mortgage and home equity was $146 million in the fourth quarter. For all of 2021, we once again had record residential mortgage production, totaling $1.2 billion, putting us near to top of all residential mortgage lenders in Hawaii. PPP forgiveness continues to progress well with 99% of the loan balances originated in 2020 and 73% of the balances originated in 2021 forgiven and paid down through December 31.

During the fourth quarter, we continued consumer unsecured purchases with our established vendors on an ongoing flow basis. The purchases during the quarter all were within our established credit limits and had a weighted average FICO score of 750. As of December 31, total Mainland consumer unsecured and auto purchase loans were approximately 5.7% of total loans. Both our Mainland and Hawaii consumer portfolios continue to perform well.

Our target range for total Mainland loans, including commercial and consumer is around 15% of total loans. With Hawaii's steady economic recovery, we have a healthy loan pipeline in all loan product categories and we are expecting our favorable loan growth trends to continue in 2022. On the deposit front, we continue to see strong inflow deposits with total core deposits increasing by $66 million or 1% sequential quarter growth. On a year-over-year basis total core deposits increased by $1 billion or 20%.

Additionally, our average cost of total deposits in the fourth quarter was just 6 basis points. Finally, we plan to build upon our early success with our Shaka digital checking product going into 2022. With this differentiated product and its strong market acceptance, we expect our comp growth to continue. We will be expanding our relationships with the new-to-CPB Shaka account holders, which represented over 50% of the new accounts and explore further complementary product offerings using the Shaka brand.

I'll now turn the call over to David Morimoto, our chief financial officer. David?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Arnold. Net income for the fourth quarter was $22.3 million or $0.80 per diluted share, an increase of $1.5 million or $0.06 per diluted share from the prior quarter. Return on average assets in the fourth quarter was 1.22% and return on average equity was 16.05%. For the full 2021 year, net income was $79.9 million or $2.83 per diluted share.

This compares to $37.3 million or $1.32 per diluted share in 2020. Net interest income for the fourth quarter was $53.1 million, which decreased by $3 million from the prior quarter due to less PPP fee income as the forgiveness process winds down. Net interest income included $4.7 million in PPP net interest income and net loan fees compared to $8.6 million in the prior quarter. At December 31, unearned net PPP fees was $3.5 million.

The net interest margin decreased to 3.08% in the fourth quarter compared to 3.31% in the prior quarter. The NIM normalized for PPP was 2.87% in the third quarter compared -- I'm sorry, in the fourth quarter compared to 2.96% in the prior quarter. The normalized NIM decrease was driven by lower loan yields due to market pricing competition. While we expect market pricing for loans to remain competitive, our new loan origination yield in the fourth quarter approximated our overall loan portfolio yield and our balance sheet is slightly asset-sensitive.

Fourth quarter other operating income increased to $11.6 million from $10.3 million in the prior quarter. The increase was driven by higher mortgage banking income and higher bank-owned life insurance income. Other operating expense for the fourth quarter was $42.2 million, which included nonrecurring expenses of $1.1 million of severance payments, $0.4 million branch consolidation costs and $0.3 million in promotion expenses related to our Shaka digital checking launch. At the end of 2021, we consolidated one of our Honolulu branches into a nearby branch.

We anticipate $0.8 million in annualized savings from this consolidation. With the continued successful customer migration to digital banking services, we plan to consolidate three additional branches in 2022. At the same time, we are continuing to invest in select strategic branch locations including acquiring real estate and fee and developing fully modernized branches. The efficiency ratio increased to 65.6% in the fourth quarter due to lower net interest income and nonrecurring expenses.

We remain focused on driving positive operating leverage with our strategic initiatives to continue to improve efficiency. At December 31, our allowance for credit losses was $68.1 million or 1.36% of outstanding loans excluding PPP loans. In the fourth quarter, we recorded a $7.4 million credit to the provision for credit losses due to continued improvements in the economic forecast and our loan portfolio as well as net recoveries during the quarter of $0.9 million. The effective tax rate was 25.4% in the fourth quarter.

And going forward, we continue to expect an effective tax rate to be in the 24% to 26% range. Our capital position remained strong. And during the fourth quarter, we repurchased 305,000 shares at a total cost of $8.4 million or an average cost per share of $27.64. Yesterday, our board of directors approved a new share repurchase authorization of up to $30 million.

Finally, our board of directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.26 per share, which was an increase of $0.01 or 4% from the prior quarter. And now, I'll return the call to Paul.

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, David. Central Pacific had a solid fourth quarter and 2021 year. Looking forward, we are very excited about the key items we announced today, which we believe will position us extremely well and enable us to deliver greater shareholder value in the near and long term. In summary, we had record 2021 earnings.

We increased our quarterly cash dividend by 4%. We will continue share repurchases under our new $30 million board-approved authorization. We launched our banking-as-a-service strategy, which started with our successful Shaka digital checking launch in Hawaii. And upcoming soon, we will expand the Mainland with our Swell fintech investment as well as other selected partners.

Further, we remain committed to providing support to our employees, customers and the community as we continue to progress through the economic recovery. On behalf of our management team and employees, thank you for your continued support and confidence in our organization. At this time, we will be happy to address any questions you may have. Back to you, Charlie.

Thank you.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Liesch of Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Andrew Liesch -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Got a question on, some questions on the banking-as-a-service initiative, like the long-term plan that this can provide for you.

But I'm just curious, what the revenue sharing agreement that you discussed, is this based on loan growth, deposit growth, a combination of both? How should we be thinking about how this could benefit the CPFs bottom line?

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thank you. This is Paul Yonamine. It is both, Andrew. And we have it structured between the three organizations, between Swell, Elevate and CPF.

And as we iterate, with our launch this year and we have further learnings, there could be certain adjustments to that revenue-sharing arrangement and we will be glad to share more details on that as we get further along in the year.

Andrew Liesch -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Certainly. We look forward to hearing that. And then the, I guess,  the loss sharing on or the credit protection that elevates providing -- just explain that a little bit more. Are they in the first slot position how and obviously, you don't need to go into too many details right now as it's still pretty early stages, but how is that broadly structured?

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. This is Paul, again. So first, before I get into that, I really want to commend Anna Hu, our chief credit officer. CPF has a history of keeping a very pristine loan portfolio.

And I think we know how to really take a hard look at credit. And in some of those best practices that gets baked into this banking-as-a-service strategy. Again, among those three organizations, we have a very solid credit management structure. And for CPF as the bank sponsor to this fintech operation, we will be in a position to dictate the credit guidelines and we'll be monitoring that very closely, definitely, weekly, if not even daily.

Be rest assured that the way we have it structured in terms of managing risk, I believe we have three lines of defense. We have what we do here at CPF already, but also with Elevate, that is a proven fintech lender with over 20 years of experience and also Swell, who is led by our former chief strategy officer and chief marketing officer, Kevin Dahlstrom. I might just add that one of the core strengths that we have on this particular bank sponsorship is the relationships that we have with the other two organizations. Again, Kevin, leading, being the CEO of Swell.

And also at Elevate, where the chief strategy officer of Elevate is a board of directors for CPF. And our former chairman, my predecessor, John Dean, also serves on the board of Elevate. So relationships at the end of the day is what is going to harvest the real benefit of even a pure digital play.

Andrew Liesch -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Got you. That's great. Thank you for that detail, I was not aware of that. And just one question for you, David.

Just you mentioned the balance sheet being slightly asset-sensitive. Could you go into a little bit more details on that. You guys have such a low cost to key deposit base that I would think that it'd be a little bit more than slightly asset-sensitive. So what are the different factors that play there?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Andrew. Yeah, the slightly asset-sensitive, as you are aware, Hawaii banks tend to have a larger concentration in residential mortgage loans on their balance sheet and say Mainland banks and that's just a function of the market. It's a pretty commonplace in Hawaii. And those loans tend to have fixed rates.

So similar to the other local banks, we have 50% to 60% of our loan portfolio is fixed rate, but it is funded by a very strong, large and stable core deposit base. So our current modeling in, say, plus 100 rate environment has net interest income increasing about 5%. That modeling currently contemplates the three tight names in 2022, with the first occurring in March. And our core deposit rate betas on average, are about 15% and that's based on historical experience.

Andrew Liesch -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful. Thanks for taking all the question today. I really appreciate it.

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Andrew.

Operator

Our next question comes from David Feaster of Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Hey. Good morning, everybody. 

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Hey, Dave.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

I just wanted to -- maybe just following up on that margin question. I appreciate the asset-sensitivity. And just kind of reading maybe between the lines on your prepared remarks, it kind of feels like we're about at the trough. Do you think we have troughed? Or do you think that the first quarter is going to be the low point and that we can start expanding as hopefully, we start getting rising rates and an improving earning asset mix just some of the growth, given the growth initiatives that you've talked about?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. David, the margin guidance for the next couple of quarters is probably 2.85% to 2.95%. On a core basis, -- so it is where we believe the net interest margin on a core basis has troughed. As mentioned in the prepared remarks, the new volume loan yields approximate the portfolio yield likewise on the investment portfolio side.

So that's the expectation on net interest margin.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

OK. And then it's great to see the early success that you guys have had from the Shaka digital checking account initiative. Could you just maybe give us some insights into how much deposit growth you've generated from those 3,300 clients so far that you've onboarded? And just how you think about growth going forward? And maybe where you're seeing some early success on the cross-selling front?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. David, this is Arnold. Yes, so we're pretty pleased with the success of the Shaka product in the launch. As you know, we just launched that in November of last year.

So it's probably a little early for us to talk a little -- talk about the growth, the actual balance growth. We probably will talk about that in future quarters as the accounts start to mature. But I can tell you that we are focused on cross-sell and engaging in activating these new customers. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, more than 50% of the accounts opened are new customers to CPB.

So we're pretty excited and more to come on reporting on success here in future quarters.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

So it sounds like that the $123 million of deposit growth we saw is -- we're only starting to see limited impact of that growth thus far. We should expect kind of deposit growth to remain relatively strong through '22?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

That's correct. In fact, on the subject of deposit growth, I'll just mention that we're looking as far as full year guidance for you, at the mid-single digit for growth in deposits. And we feel pretty good about that. We think there will be some outflows as the economies continue to take traction and recover.

We'll have -- our customers have confidence in being able to span again. But with that said, the things that we're doing, the Shaka launch but even the rebrand last year and just the vibe that we've created, we feel pretty confident that we'll start -- we'll continue to see nice deposit growth this year.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

OK. And then could you just maybe talk a bit about your outlook for expenses as we go into '22. We hear a lot about inflationary pressures. Just weighing on expenses for the industry.

You got several tech initiatives obviously ongoing. But it seems like maybe a lot of the expenses are already in the run rate, just given what we did last year. I'm just curious how you think about expenses as we head into '22? What a good core run rate inflationary rate might be just cognizant of a seasonally higher first quarter as well?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Hey, David. It's David. Yeah, I think your commentary was right on point.

As we've stated previously, we started the investments in our initiatives last year. Actually, it was the prior year, but it did ramp up last year. And that was designed because we knew we had the tailwinds of PPP income and credit provisioning. So because we had those tailwinds, we started investing last year.

So the outlook for expenses now is roughly flat. I would say it's probably $40 million to $42 million per quarter is the guide. So it's like a 0 to plus 2% year-over-year increase is what we're looking at for 2022.

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

OK, that's helpful. Thanks, everybody.

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, David.

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our next question comes from Laurie Hunsicker of Compass Point. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

Great. Hi, thanks. Good morning. Just sticking with where David was on expenses.

And so obviously, netting out your onetime items, I can see how you're at that $40 million to $42 million expense run rate. Can you just help us in terms of timing on when your three branches are planning to close in 2022?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Hey, Laurie. It's David. So under the current plan and obviously, things can change.

But under the current plan, we're looking at two consolidations in the second quarter. Those branches tend to be smaller branches. So the onetime expense there is roughly $300,000 pre-tax and prospective annual savings is about $500,000. And then the third consolidation is currently planned in the third quarter.

There, we have onetime expense of $200,000, prospective annual savings of $400,000. So we're looking at total annual savings of about $900,000 from the 2022 consolidations on an annual run rate basis.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK, OK. And how should we be thinking about core expense growth for 2023?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Laurie, I would say we're in that 1.65% on an annual basis in 2022. And then 2023 is a little ways out, but I would say we're targeting like in the 2% to 3% range annual growth, which is really inflation. But there's so much uncertainty right now with regard to COVID, market interest rates, excess balance sheet liquidity and our banking-as-a-service strategy.

So there's a lot of moving parts to the expense line. So I think the bottom line message on expenses is we plan to be nimble as we've been throughout this the last several years. And we're going to adjust our expenses based on revenue opportunities. So if there's revenue -- if there's great revenue opportunities, if our banking-as-a-service strategies gain traction, we'll take advantage of it and we will increase our expenses to take advantage of that if it has commensurate revenue opportunities.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK. That makes sense. Those are great numbers. Arnold, I just wanted to go back to something you said consumer loans, you were targeting 15% of your book.

When is your thought on when consumer loans get to that level? You're currently at 12%. How should we be thinking about that?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Actually, when I said 15%, it includes both commercial and consumer. So it's consumer and commercial, 15% as a percentage of our total loan portfolio. So right now, on the consumer side, for the Mainland, we're at about 5.7%. And we'll probably be in that 6%, 7% range, I would say.

I mean I don't see us growing more than that in the near term.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

Got it. OK. And then I guess, I just -- and this is for all of you, I guess -- if you could help us think a little bit about the Swell, Elevate fintech. Can you help us think about how much you plan to add in loans over the duration of 2022 as you're obviously just ramping up and more importantly, 2023 and what the coupons are looking like on those and anything around FICO?

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Laurie. I'm going to start on that. This is Paul. And so as you mentioned as well, in 2022, we will be ramping things up, will be -- there will be an iteration process this year.

As we review customer acquisition costs, yields, default rates, we'll be figuring out how deeply to step on the gas pedal on this. And that's one of the real benefits of the relationship with Swell and Elevate is that we have that degree of flexibility as we look at risk going forward. I could tell you that Swell will become a good part of our future growth. Naturally, we continue to see great opportunities here, locally.

And hopefully, when Japan opens up, we'll see many opportunities with Japanese investors coming into Hawaii, again. But in terms of this digital play working with Elevate, again, a very proven fintech lender with over 20 years of experience and also with Swell, led by an individual who had much to do with our digital strategy here in Hawaii and our ad marketing campaign that I think this is a good group that will be driving future potential for us. But Laurie, at this time, it's really difficult for me to provide you with any specifics on a number of loan originations and things during 2023. But once again, I do believe that our initiative with Swell will become a key part of our future growth.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK. And so Elevate is subprime. Are you intending to do subprime? Subprime unsecured that we got...

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

We are not. Yes. We are not intended to do. I'm sorry.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

So what is the line in the sand of how low you're going to go on FICO? Can you help us understand that?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Right. So our focus right now, Laurie, is to look at what we call near prime. But remind you that Elevate being in the subprime space for roughly 20 years, they have considerable experience and IP in terms of assessing -- they've automated the process of assessing the creditworthiness of potential prospects. And so we will be leveraging a lot on Elevate's current lending management system.

It's already built. There is nothing that we need to rebuild. And actually, that's another great feature of this current alliance that we have. And why we're not showing a great deal of more expense on our books today, because it really is the coming together of existing technologies and business processes.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

So how -- sorry, what is your definition of near prime? How do you think about that on a FICO?

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

David, what was the FICO score?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Laurie, it's in this 650 area. But what I will say, Laurie and we will be happy to share more details as we get closer to launch and as we get to launch of Swell. But there is a desire to keep some of this behind the curtain for now.

But what I will say with regard to near prime is we're not going with necessarily just a FICO definition of near prime. As you're well aware, a lot of the online digital lenders today have multiple and sometimes hundreds of different inputs into their credit models and FICO being one of the 100 inputs. And so while it is an input, it is not the only input that we'll rely on and we're going to be focused on more of the digital lending experience of Elevate.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK. Great. And then just last question with...

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Well again, Laurie, if I could just add, again, the near prime segment in the Continental U.S. is probably the most underserved segment in terms of credit today. So we've done a fair amount of analysis. And so as David has covered, it doesn't just boil down the FICO scores.

And this is really what we're counting on with Elevate, with their 20 years of experience in how to identify and segment that near prime group.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK. And sorry, just two more questions. What is your target launch date then for Swell? When do we start to see these add to your balance sheet? What's your best guess?

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Laurie, as we've disclosed, we're targeting mid-2022. So I'd say 6/30.

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

OK. Great. And then lastly, can you just share with us a little bit about Kevin. I'm just -- I'm not familiar with Kevin Dahlstrom Just any high-level thoughts you can share with us for this rate.

Thank you.

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Right. Thanks, Laurie. So Kevin was with Central Pacific Financial Corp for two years. We were very fortunate to bring him on board after a great stent with Mr.

Cooper in the Continental U.S., one of the largest online digital mortgage lenders. And prior to that -- and at Mr. Cooper, he was the chief marketing officer there, very involved in the rebranding, a lot of the social influencer strategy and basically driving their digital marketing initiative. Prior to that, actually, Kevin worked for Elevate as well, where he was also the chief marketing officer.

Again, this goes back to this strength that we have on relationships. We all know each other, which I find extremely important as becoming a bank sponsor. I think as a matter of fact, it's a critical success factor as banks sponsor fintechs that they have that type of relationship that's been built up over the years. Central Pacific Financial Corp, if you -- and many thanks to all of the people who follow us, but we have had a good history of hitting our targets, those past three years, especially in the digital arena.

Kevin was very involved in the final implementation of our new mobile and online platform, which is now rated 4.8 on Apple and Android and I believe could be the highest rated platform now in the state of Hawaii. And we're quite proud about that. It took a lot of work, but we executed and we got it done. And so it's a lot of that discipline that Kevin brings to the Swell organization along with his marketing capabilities.

And we're very -- we're looking very positively to the future as a result of that.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. So I'll turn the call back over to Paul Yonamine, chairman and CEO, for closing remarks.

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Great. Thank you very much for participating in our earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2021. We look forward to future opportunities to update you on our progress. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 41 minutes

Call participants:

David Morimoto -- Chief Financial Officer

Paul Yonamine -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Catherine Ngo -- Executive Vice Chairman

Arnold Martines -- President and Chief Operating Officer

Andrew Liesch -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

David Feaster -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Laurie Hunsicker -- Compass Point Research and Trading -- Analyst

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