Anthony and Yuko Provenzano

Anthony Provenzano: I have deep roots in the islands, and I’ve lived here my whole life.

Yuko Provenzano: I’ve always loved Hawaii. I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and moved here after graduating college. I grew up visiting Hawaii at Christmas because the majority of my family is from Japan, and this was the halfway point to meet up. My parents moved here a few years ago, which has been really nice because they now get to spend a lot of time with our son, and we get to spend a lot of quality family time together.

For both Anthony and myself, family is very important. Once our son, Raizo, was born, we immediately set up a savings account for him at Bank of Hawaii. Investing in his future is very important to us.

Anthony: The synergy between my family and Bank of Hawaii is an integral part of my success as a young professional. I appreciate the countless people at the bank who have helped me grow along the way, and who always provide a personal touch.

Davin Nakasato, a senior vice president of Kālai Services in The Private Bank, has been a key, personal connection. We knew each other from growing up in the same neighborhood and attending Saint Louis High in the 8th grade. We lost touch after my father passed away when I was a freshman in high school. For most of my high school years, I lived in multiple foster homes, was in and out of shelters, and homeless. At 17 I earned my GED, and then attended Kapiolani Community College until I had enough credits to transfer to UH. I majored in Finance with a real estate focus at the UH Shidler College of Business and started my career in commercial real estate. After working for a few years, Pacific Business News published an article about one of my commercial real estate deals. Davin saw the article, reached out, and we reconnected.

Through Davin I met Brenda Mitchell, vice president and executive loan officer, who helped us with our mortgage. She has been integral in helping us work our way up from a small, one-bedroom apartment to a house large enough where we can raise our son. Brenda has now become a personal friend, and just helped us to refinance our house at a lower interest rate and set up a line of credit. And we haven’t had to go into the branch for the refinancing—everything is done digitally—which has helped.

Yuko: Over the past five years I’ve primarily worked with Davin and Brenda. They are like friends. Davin’s such a down-to-earth guy who’s very approachable. I feel comfortable knowing that if I had any questions
I could just text or email Davin and he would respond.

When we were purchasing our home, Brenda met us on the weekend to sign the mortgage paperwork for our house. We were getting ready to run the marathon, so she talked about her own marathon experience and made the process go by quickly.

Anthony: I think of Bank of Hawaii as the leader in Hawaii’s banking industry. Throughout my career I have developed relationships with many people at the bank who have helped me to where I am today. Another person that stands out is Dirk Yoshizawa, who is now executive vice president and commercial banking center manager. He was previously on the owner/occupant side of the commercial real estate lending department. Working with him is a great illustration of local synergy: I was able to do well over $100 million in sales through loans that were handled by the bank, and which helped many local businesses purchase real estate in Hawaii.

Yuko: I find the bank very forward thinking and innovative with new technology such as Cardless Cash. I think it’s important to be so forward thinking in our society because everybody is on their phone. Accessing bank services on our phones is so convenient. I’ve used Cardless Cash, and I love it! I haven’t used it as much lately because I’m not using as much cash right now, but when I do, I enjoy the Cardless Cash feature.

Anthony: Last year I learned about Bankoh’s online mobile deposit feature where you can just take a photo of a check and make your deposit without going to a branch. That’s been very helpful this year. If I get a commission check, I can just take a picture and deposit it, and then I get an email confirmation of the deposit.

Yuko: They are very trustworthy. I think they care not just about you, but also about your family—they are always asking about Raizo when we talk. It’s not just about us; it’s about our whole family, which is a really good feeling because he’s the future.

Anthony: Our ongoing trust and deep personal connections built over years at Bank of Hawaii have given us peace of mind during these tough times.