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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 25, 2011

Registration No. 333-[      ]

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C.  20549

Form S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

CENTRAL PACIFIC FINANCIAL CORP.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

220 South King Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

(808) 544-0500

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

Glenn K.C. Ching

Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel

220 South King Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

(808) 544-0500

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

with a copy to:

Alison S. Ressler

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

1888 Century Park East, Suite 2100

Los Angeles, CA 90067

(310) 712-6600

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) check the following box.  o

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).  (Check one):

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

(1)            This registration statement relates to (a) the transferable subscription rights to purchase shares of our common stock, no par value per share, and (b) the shares of our common stock deliverable upon the exercise of the transferable subscription rights.

(2)            The common stock being registered hereby includes associated rights to acquire Junior Participating Preferred Stock, Series C, of Central Pacific Financial Corp. pursuant to the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan described in the prospectus contained in this registration statement.

(3)            Represents the gross proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock assuming the exercise of all transferable subscription rights to be distributed.

(4)            The transferable subscription rights are being issued without consideration. Pursuant to Rule 457(g) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, no separate registration fee is payable with respect to the rights being registered since the rights are being registered in the same registration statement as the common stock issuable upon exercise of the transferable subscription rights.

The Registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to Section 8(a), may determine.

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The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to completion, dated February 25, 2011

PROSPECTUS

Up to 2,000,000 Shares of Common Stock
Issuable upon the Exercise of Transferable Subscription Rights at $10 Per Share

We are distributing, at no charge, to holders of our common stock, no par value per share (the “Common Stock” or “Common Shares”), transferable subscription rights (“Rights”) to purchase up to 2,000,000 Common Shares at a price of $10 per share in this rights offering (this “Rights Offering”). You will receive one Right for each Common Share held by you of record as of 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on February 17, 2011 (the “Record Date”). Each Right will entitle you to purchase 1.3081 Common Shares at a subscription price of $10 per share (the “Basic Subscription Right”) and an over-subscription privilege at the same price per share. If you timely and fully exercise your Basic Subscription Right with respect to all the Rights you hold and other rights holders do not exercise their Basic Subscription Right in full, you may also subscribe for an unlimited additional whole number of Common Shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, subject to availability and allocation, provided that (i) no person may thereby acquire, together with its affiliates, beneficial ownership of 4.99% or more of the Common Shares and (ii) the aggregate purchase price of all Common Shares purchased in this Rights Offering may not exceed $20 million. If over-subscription requests exceed the number of shares available, we will allocate the available shares pro rata among the rights holders exercising the over-subscription privilege in proportion to the number of shares such a rights holder elected to purchase pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, relative to the aggregate number of shares requested in all of the over-subscription requests received from rights holders. For additional details regarding the pro rata allocation process, see “Questions and Answers Relating to this Rights Offering — What is the over-subscription privilege?” If you properly exercise your over-subscription privilege for a number of shares that exceeds the number of shares allocated to you, any excess subscription payments received by the subscription agent will be returned to you as soon as practicable, without interest or penalty, following the expiration of this Rights Offering. Fractional Common Shares resulting from the exercise of the Basic Subscription Right on an aggregate basis as to any rights holder will be eliminated by rounding down to the nearest whole share. There is no minimum subscription amount required for consummation of this Rights Offering.

This Rights Offering will expire at 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011. Any Right not exercised at or before that time will expire void and worthless without any payment to the holders thereof. We do not intend to extend the expiration time of this Rights Offering. You should carefully consider whether to exercise or transfer your Rights prior to the expiration of this Rights Offering. All exercises of Rights are irrevocable. Our Board of Directors is making no recommendation regarding any exercise or transfer of your Rights.

This offering is being made directly by us. We are not using an underwriter or selling agent.

Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, is our subscription agent for this Rights Offering.

Our Common Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol “CPF.” On February 22, 2011, the closing price for our Common Shares on the NYSE was $30.00 per share. The Rights are transferable, and we expect them to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “CPF-RT” until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011; however, we cannot give you any assurance that a market for the Rights will develop or, if a market does develop, whether it will be sustainable throughout the period when the Rights are transferable or at what prices the Rights will trade. Pursuant to normal practices of the NYSE, shares of our Common Stock traded during the period from February 15, 2011 through February 25, 2011 traded with the Rights (i.e., with “due bills” attached).

On February 2, 2011, we effected a one-for-twenty reverse stock split of our Common Stock. All share numbers and per share prices in this prospectus reflect the one-for-twenty reverse stock split, unless otherwise indicated.

Investing in our Common Shares involves risks. You should read the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 14 before investing in our Common Shares.

As a result of the terms of this Rights Offering, shareholders who do not fully exercise their Rights will own, upon completion of this Rights Offering, a smaller proportional interest in us than otherwise would be the case had they fully exercised their Rights. See “Risk Factors – If you do not exercise your Rights, your percentage ownership will be diluted” for more information.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission or other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of the Rights or the Common Shares or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The Rights and our Common Shares are not deposit accounts and are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency.

(1)          Assumes the exercise of Rights to purchase all 2,000,000 Common Shares in this Rights Offering.

It is anticipated that delivery of the Common Shares purchased in this Rights Offering will be made on or about [ ], 2011.

The date of this prospectus is [ ], 2011

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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

You should only rely on the information contained in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with information different from that contained in this prospectus. We are not making an offer to sell securities in any jurisdiction in which the offer or sale is not permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, and any information incorporated by reference is accurate only as of the date of the document incorporated by reference, in each case, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any exercise of the rights. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may have changed since that date. To understand this Rights Offering fully and for a more complete description of this Rights Offering you should read this entire document carefully, including particularly the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 14.

In this prospectus, we frequently use the terms “we,” “our” and “us” to refer to Central Pacific Financial Corp. (the “Company”) and its subsidiaries.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) allows us to “incorporate by reference” the information that we file with it, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to other documents. The information incorporated by reference is an important part of this prospectus. We incorporate by reference the following documents (other than information furnished rather than filed):

·                  the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010;

·                  the Company’s Current Reports on Form 8-K filed on January 28, 2011 (relating to Item 5.02), February 3, 2011, February 11, 2011, February 17, 2011, February 22, 2011 and February 25, 2011;

·                  the Company’s Definitive Proxy Statement related to its 2011 annual meeting of shareholders, as filed with the SEC on [   ], 2011; and

·                  the description of our Common Stock and associated Preferred Share Purchase Rights (as defined below) set forth in our Registration Statements on Form 8-A filed pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act, including any amendment or report filed with the SEC for the purpose of updating this description.

We will provide without charge, upon written or oral request, a copy of any or all of the documents that are incorporated by reference into this prospectus and a copy of any or all other contracts or documents which are referred to in this prospectus. Requests should be directed to: Glenn K.C. Ching, Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel of Central Pacific Financial Corp., 220 South King Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RELATED TO THIS RIGHTS OFFERING

The following are examples of what we anticipate will be common questions about this Rights Offering. The following questions and answers do not contain all of the information that may be important to you and may not address all of the questions that you may have about this Rights Offering. This prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus contain more detailed descriptions of the terms and conditions of this Rights Offering and provide additional information about us and our business, including potential risks related to this Rights Offering, the Common Shares offered hereby and our business.

What is this Rights Offering?

We are distributing, at no charge, to holders of our Common Shares, transferable Rights to purchase Common Shares at a price of $10 per share. You will receive such Rights if you owned Common Shares as of 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on February 17, 2011, the Record Date. Each Right consists of a Basic Subscription Right and an over-subscription privilege, as described below. You will receive one Right for each Common Share that you owned on the Record Date; however, pursuant to normal practices of the NYSE, shares of our Common Stock traded during the period from February 15, 2011 through February 25, 2011 traded with the Rights (i.e., with “due bills” attached). We will issue up to a total of 2,000,000 Common Shares in this Rights Offering.

What is the Basic Subscription Right?

The Basic Subscription Right gives rights holders the opportunity to purchase 1.3081 new Common Shares for each Right at a subscription price of $10 per share. You may exercise some or all of your Rights, or you may choose not to exercise any Rights at all. You may also transfer your Rights. The Rights are a new issue of securities, however, and do not have an established trading market. We cannot give you any assurance that a market for the Rights will develop or, if a market does develop, whether it will be sustainable throughout the period when the Rights are transferable or at what prices the Rights will trade. Therefore, we cannot assure you that you will be able to sell any of your Rights or as to the value you may receive in a sale.

If you hold Common Shares in your name, the number of shares you may purchase pursuant to your Basic Subscription Rights is indicated on the enclosed rights certificate. If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, you will not receive a rights certificate. If you are not contacted by your nominee, you should contact your nominee as soon as possible.

What is the over-subscription privilege?

If you timely and fully exercise your Basic Subscription Rights with respect to all the Rights you hold, you may also choose to exercise your over-subscription privilege by purchasing a portion of any whole shares that other rights holders do not purchase through their Basic Subscription Rights. You should indicate on your rights certificate, or the form provided by your nominee if your shares are held in the name of a nominee, how many additional shares you would like to purchase pursuant to your over-subscription privilege.

We will seek to honor the over-subscription requests in full, subject to a maximum of 2,000,000 Common Shares being offered in this Rights Offering and the limitations described below under “— Are there any limits on the number of shares I may purchase in this Rights Offering?” If over-subscription requests exceed the number of shares available, we will allocate the available shares pro rata among the rights holders exercising the over-subscription privilege in proportion to the number of shares such a rights holder elected to purchase pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, relative to the aggregate number of shares requested in all of the over-subscription requests received from rights holders.

For example, if (i) there are 100 excess shares available for purchase by five rights holders who have timely and fully exercised their Basic Subscription Rights with respect to all the Rights they hold and (ii) rights holder A requests purchasing 100 shares pursuant to rights holder A’s over-subscription privilege, rights holder B requests purchasing 50 shares pursuant to rights holder B’s over-subscription privilege, rights holder C requests purchasing 20 shares pursuant to rights holder C’s over-subscription privilege, rights holder D requests purchasing 20 shares pursuant to rights holder D’s over-subscription privilege and rights holder E requests purchasing 10 shares pursuant to rights holder E’s over-subscription privilege, then, assuming the valid exercise of each of these rights holder’s Basic Subscription Rights and receipt of sufficient payment for the shares requested pursuant to the over-subscription request, and that the limitation described below is not applicable, the pro rata allocation would be as follows: rights holder A would receive 50 shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, rights holder B would receive 25 shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, rights holder C would receive 10 shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege, rights holder D would receive 10 shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege and rights holder E would receive 5 shares pursuant to the over-subscription privilege.

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If this pro rata allocation would result in any rights holder acquiring, together with its affiliates, beneficial ownership of 4.99% or more of our outstanding Common Shares, then such rights holder will be allocated only that number of shares that would result in the rights holder acquiring the maximum number of shares permissible based on such limitation, and the remaining shares will be allocated among all other rights holders exercising their over-subscription privilege on the same pro rata basis described above. The proration process will be repeated until all available shares have been allocated. Our subscription agent for this Rights Offering will determine the over-subscription allocation based on the formula described above.

Because we will not know the total number of available shares and how available shares will be allocated before this Rights Offering expires, in order for the exercise of your entire over-subscription privilege to be valid, you should deliver to the subscription agent payment in an amount equal to the aggregate subscription price of the entire number of shares that you have requested to purchase pursuant to your over-subscription privilege, along with payment for the exercise of your Basic Subscription Rights and all rights certificates and other subscription documents, prior to the expiration of the Rights Offering, even if you ultimately are not allocated the full amount of your over-subscription request. To the extent the aggregate subscription price of the actual number of shares allocated to you pursuant to the over-subscription privilege is less than the amount you actually paid, the excess subscription payments will be returned to you as soon as practicable, without interest or penalty, following the expiration of this Rights Offering.

Are there any limits on the number of shares I may purchase in this Rights Offering?

The exercise of any over-subscription privilege by any rights holder will be limited as follows: (i) no person may thereby acquire, together with its affiliates, beneficial ownership of 4.99% or more of our Common Shares and (ii) the aggregate purchase price of all Common Shares purchased in this Rights Offering may not exceed $20 million.

Will fractional shares be issued in this Rights Offering?

No. Fractional shares resulting from exercise of the Basic Subscription Right on an aggregate basis as to any rights holder will be eliminated by rounding down to the nearest whole share.  The over-subscription privilege may only be exercised for whole shares.

Why are we conducting this Rights Offering?

On February 2, 2011, we effected a one-for-twenty reverse stock split of our Common Stock (the “Reverse Stock Split”).

On February 18, 2011, we completed a capital raise of $325 million in a private placement (the “Private Placement”) with investments from (1) affiliates of each of The Carlyle Group (“Carlyle”) and Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. (“Anchorage” and, together with Carlyle, the “Lead Investors”) pursuant to investment agreements with each of the Lead Investors (collectively, the “Investment Agreements”) and (2) various other investors, including certain of our directors and officers (the “Additional Investors” and, together with the Lead Investors, the “Investors”), pursuant to subscription agreements with each of such investors.

Concurrently with the closing of the Private Placement, we completed the exchange (the “TARP Exchange”) of 135,000 shares of our Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, no par value per share and liquidation preference $1,000 per share (the “TARP Preferred Stock”), held by the United States Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”), and accrued and unpaid dividends thereon for 5,620,117 Common Shares. We also amended the warrant held by the Treasury to, among other things, reflect an exercise price of $10 per share. The warrant grants the Treasury the right to purchase 79,288 Common Shares, subject to adjustment.

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The Reverse Stock Split, the Private Placement, the TARP Exchange and this Rights Offering are part of our recapitalization plan. With the closing of the Private Placement, our capital ratios now exceed the minimum levels required by the Consent Order dated December 9, 2009 (the “Consent Order”) the bank entered into with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) and the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions (the “DFI”), and are at “well-capitalized” levels. We are conducting this Rights Offering because we want to provide our existing shareholders and their transferees with the opportunity to purchase our Common Shares in a public offering at the same price per share paid by the Investors in the Private Placement. We will use the proceeds from this Rights Offering to further capitalize the bank and for other general corporate purposes, which may include the payment of the accrued and unpaid interest on our junior subordinated debentures relating to our trust preferred securities which has been deferred since August 20, 2009.

How was the subscription price determined?

The price of the shares offered in this Rights Offering is the same as the price paid by Investors in the Private Placement. The subscription price does not necessarily bear any relationship to any other established criteria for value. You should not consider the subscription price as an indication of value of the Company or our Common Shares. You should not assume or expect that, after this Rights Offering, our Common Shares will trade at or above the subscription price in any given time period. The market price of our Common Shares may decline during or after this Rights Offering, and you may not be able to sell the underlying Common Shares purchased during this Rights Offering at a price equal to or greater than the subscription price. You should obtain a current quote for our Common Shares before exercising your Rights and make your own assessment of our business and financial condition, our prospects for the future, and the terms of this Rights Offering.

Am I required to exercise the Rights I receive in this Rights Offering?

No.  You may exercise some or all of your Rights or you may choose not to exercise any Rights. If you do not exercise any Rights, the number of Common Shares you own will not change as a result of this Rights Offering. However, if you choose not to exercise your Rights, your ownership interest in the Company will be diluted to the extent other rights holders exercise their Rights, and your voting and other rights in the Company will likewise be diluted. You may also transfer your Rights. See “— May I transfer my Rights?” below.

How soon must I act to exercise my Rights?

If you received a rights certificate and elect to exercise any or all of your Rights, the subscription agent must receive your properly completed and duly executed rights certificate, all other required subscription documents and full subscription payment, including final clearance of any uncertified check, before this Rights Offering expires at 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011. If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, your nominee may establish an earlier deadline before the expiration of this Rights Offering by which time you must provide it with your instructions to exercise your Rights. We do not intend to extend the expiration of this Rights Offering.

Although we will make reasonable attempts to provide this prospectus to our shareholders to whom Rights are distributed, this Rights Offering and all Rights will expire on the expiration date, whether or not we have been able to locate all such shareholders.

May I transfer my Rights?

Yes. Rights are transferable from the commencement of this Rights Offering until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [  ], 2011, the last trading day before the expiration date of this Rights Offering. See “The Rights Offering — Method of Transferring Rights.”

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How may I sell, transfer or assign my Rights?

You may seek to sell your Rights through normal investment channels. See “The Rights Offering — Method of Selling Rights.” In addition, if you hold your Rights in your own name, you may seek to sell or transfer your Rights through the subscription agent. See “The Rights Offering — Selling Rights through the Subscription Agent.” We anticipate that the Rights will be eligible to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “CPF-RT” from the commencement of this Rights Offering until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on the last trading day before the expiration date of this Rights Offering. The Rights are a new issue of securities, however, and do not have an established trading market. We cannot give you any assurance that a market for the Rights will develop or, if a market does develop, whether it will be sustainable throughout the period when the Rights are transferable or at what prices the Rights will trade. Therefore, we cannot assure you that you will be able to sell any of your Rights or as to the value you may receive in a sale. See “The Rights Offering — Transferability of Rights” and “The Rights Offering — Method of Transferring Rights.”

Are we requiring a minimum overall subscription from existing shareholders to complete this Rights Offering?

No. We are not requiring an overall minimum subscription to complete this Rights Offering.

Has the Board of Directors made a recommendation to shareholders regarding this Rights Offering?

No. Our Board of Directors is not making a recommendation regarding any exercise or transfer of your Rights. Rights holders who exercise Rights will incur investment risk on new money invested. The stock market and, in particular, the market for financial institution stocks, has experienced significant volatility over the past few years. As a result, the market price for our Common Shares may be volatile. In addition, the trading volume in our Common Shares may fluctuate more than usual and cause significant price variations to occur. Accordingly, Common Shares that an investor purchases in this Rights Offering may trade at a price lower than the subscription price. The trading price of our Common Shares will depend on many factors, which may change from time to time, including, without limitation, our financial condition, performance, creditworthiness and prospects, future sales of our equity or equity related securities, and other factors. Volatility in the market price of our Common Shares may prevent you from being able to sell the shares when you want or at prices you find attractive. You should make your decision based on your assessment of our business and financial condition, our prospects for the future, the terms of this Rights Offering and the information contained in, or incorporated by reference into, this prospectus. See “Risk Factors” for a discussion of some of the risks involved in investing in our Common Shares.

Will our directors and executive officers participate in this Rights Offering?

To the extent they held Common Shares as of the Record Date, our directors and officers are entitled to participate in this Rights Offering on the same terms and conditions applicable to all rights holders. We have been informed that all such directors and executive officers intend to participate in this Rights Offering.

How do I exercise my Rights if I own shares in my name?

If you hold Common Shares in your name and you wish to participate in this Rights Offering, you must deliver a properly completed and duly executed rights certificate and all other required subscription documents, together with payment of the full subscription price, to the subscription agent before 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on the expiration date. If you send an uncertified check, payment will not be deemed to have been delivered to the subscription agent until the check has cleared. In certain cases, you may be required to provide signature guarantees.

Please follow the delivery instructions on the rights certificate. Do not deliver documents to us. You are solely responsible for completing delivery to the subscription agent of your rights certificate, all other required subscription documents and subscription payment. You should allow sufficient time for delivery of your subscription materials to the subscription agent so that the subscription agent receives them by 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on the expiration date.

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If you send a payment that is insufficient to purchase the number of shares you requested, or if the number of shares you requested is not specified in the forms, the payment received will be applied to exercise your Rights to the fullest extent possible based on the amount of the payment received, subject to the availability of shares and allocation procedure under the over-subscription privilege and the elimination of fractional shares.

What should I do if I want to participate in this Rights Offering but my shares are held in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee?

If you hold your Common Shares through a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, then your nominee is the record holder of the shares you own and the associated Rights. The record holder must exercise the Rights on your behalf. If you wish to purchase our Common Shares through this Rights Offering, you should contact your broker, dealer, custodian bank or nominee as soon as possible. Please follow the instructions of your nominee. Your nominee may establish an earlier deadline before the expiration date of this Rights Offering.

What form of payment is required to purchase our Common Shares?

As described in the instructions accompanying the rights certificate, payments submitted to the subscription agent must be made in U.S. currency, by one of the following three methods:

·                  by a cashier’s check drawn upon a U.S. bank payable to “Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.”;

·                  by an uncertified check drawn upon a U.S. bank payable to “Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.”; or

·                  by wire transfer of immediately available funds at the following account: “Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.;     ABA 121000248; Credit Stock Transfer Clearing A/C: 000-10-67-899; For further credit to Central Pacific Rights Offering; call Donna Boehm at (651) 450-4180 upon arrival.” Any wire transfer should clearly indicate the identity of the subscriber who is paying the subscription price by wire transfer.

Payments will be deemed to have been received upon (i) clearance of any cashier’s check or uncertified check, or (ii) receipt of collected funds in the account designated above. If paying by uncertified check, please note that the funds paid thereby may take five or more business days to clear. Accordingly, rights holders who wish to pay the subscription price by means of uncertified check are urged to make payment sufficiently in advance of the expiration time to ensure that such payment is received and clears by such time.

If you hold your shares in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, separate payment instructions may apply. Please contact your nominee, if applicable, for further payment instructions.

When will I receive my new shares?

If you purchase Common Shares in this Rights Offering, you will receive your new shares as soon as practicable following the expiration of this Rights Offering.

After I send in my payment and rights certificate to the subscription agent, may I cancel my exercise of Rights?

No. All exercises of Rights are irrevocable unless this Rights Offering is cancelled by the Company, even if you later learn information that you consider to be unfavorable to the exercise of your Rights. You should not exercise your Rights unless you are certain that you wish to purchase shares at the subscription price of $10 per share.

What effects will this Rights Offering have on our outstanding Common Shares?

As a result of this Rights Offering, up to an additional 2,000,000 Common Shares may be issued and outstanding after the closing of this Rights Offering and the ownership and voting interests of the existing shareholders that do not fully exercise their Basic Subscription Rights will be diluted. As of the Record Date, we had 1,528,935 Common Shares outstanding. After the closing of the Private Placement and the TARP Exchange on February 18, 2011, we had 39,649,052 Common Shares outstanding.

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In addition, if the subscription price of the shares is less than the market price of our Common Shares it will likely reduce the market price per share of shares you already hold.

How much will the Company receive from this Rights Offering and how will such proceeds be used?

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this Rights Offering (assuming the full exercise of Rights), after deducting estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $[ ] million. We intend to use the net proceeds from this Rights Offering to make capital contributions to the bank and for other general corporate purposes, which may include the payment of the accrued and unpaid interest on our junior subordinated debentures relating to our trust preferred securities which has been deferred since August 20, 2009.

Are there risks in exercising my Rights?

Yes. The exercise of your Rights involves risks. Exercising your Rights involves the purchase of additional Common Shares and you should consider this investment as carefully as you would consider any other investment. Among other things, you should carefully consider the risks described under the heading “Risk Factors” beginning on page 14 of this prospectus and in the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus.

If my exercise of Rights is not valid, will my subscription payment be refunded to me?

Yes. The subscription agent will hold all funds it receives in a segregated bank account until completion of this Rights Offering. If your exercise of Rights is deemed not to be valid, all subscription payments received by the subscription agent will be returned as soon as practicable following the expiration of this Rights Offering, without interest or penalty. If you own shares through a nominee, it may take longer for you to receive your subscription payment because the subscription agent will return payments through the record holder of your shares.

What fees or charges apply if I purchase shares in this Rights Offering?

We are not charging any fee or sales commission to issue Rights to you or to issue shares to you if you exercise your Rights. If you exercise your Rights through a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, you are responsible for paying any fees your record holder may charge you.

What are the U.S. federal income tax consequences of exercising my Rights?

For U.S. federal income tax purposes, you should not recognize income or loss in connection with the receipt or exercise of Rights in this Rights Offering. You should consult your tax advisor as to your particular tax consequences resulting from this Rights Offering. For a detailed discussion, see “Certain U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences.”

To whom should I send my forms and payment?

If your shares are held in the name of a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, then you should send your rights certificate, all other required subscription documents and subscription payment to that record holder. If you are the record holder, then you should send your rights certificate, all other required subscription documents and subscription payment by mail, hand delivery or overnight courier to:

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Shareowner Services
161 N. Concord Exchange
South St. Paul, Minnesota 55075
Attn: Voluntary Corporate Actions Department

Telephone Number for Confirmation or Information:
(800) 468-9716

You and, if applicable, your nominee are solely responsible for completing delivery to the subscription agent of your rights certificate, all other required subscription documents and subscription payment. You should allow sufficient time for delivery of your subscription materials to the subscription agent and clearance of payment before the expiration of this Rights Offering. If you hold your Common Shares through a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee, your nominee may establish an earlier deadline before the expiration date of this Rights Offering.

Whom should I contact if I have other questions?

If you have any questions regarding this Rights Offering, completion of the rights certificate or any other subscription documents or submitting payment in this Rights Offering, please contact the subscription agent at the number or email above.

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

The following summary highlights selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and in the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus and does not contain all the information you will need in making your investment decision. You should read carefully this entire prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus before making your investment decision.

Central Pacific Financial Corp.

Company Overview

Central Pacific Financial Corp. is a Hawaii corporation and a bank holding company. Our principal business is to serve as a holding company for our bank subsidiary, Central Pacific Bank.

Central Pacific Bank (the “bank”) is a full-service commercial bank with 34 branches and 120 ATMs located throughout the state of Hawaii. The bank offers a broad range of products and services including accepting time and demand deposits and originating loans, including commercial loans, construction loans, commercial and residential mortgage loans, and consumer loans. The bank also has an office in California.

At December 31, 2010, we had total assets of approximately $3.9 billion, loans and leases of $2.2 billion and total deposits of $3.1 billion.

Our Common Stock is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “CPF.” Our principal executive offices are located at 220 South King Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 and our telephone number is (808) 544-0500. Our internet address is http://www.centralpacificbank.com. The information contained on our web site is not part of this prospectus.

The Recapitalization

We recently completed the following transactions as part of our recapitalization:

·                  the Reverse Stock Split on February 2, 2011;

·                  a capital raise of $325 million in the Private Placement that was completed on February 18, 2011, at a price of $10 per share, with investments from (1) Carlyle and Anchorage pursuant to the Investment Agreements and (2) the Additional Investors, pursuant to subscription agreements with each of the Additional Investors; and

·                  concurrently with the Private Placement, (1) the TARP Exchange, pursuant to which we issued the Treasury 5,620,117 Common Shares, and (2)  the amendment of the warrant held by the Treasury to, among other things, reflect an exercise price of $10 per share.

Through this Rights Offering, our shareholders of record as of 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on the Record Date, which is one business day prior to the completion of the Private Placement and the TARP Exchange, and their transferees have the opportunity to purchase our Common Shares at the same price per share paid by the Investors in the Private Placement.

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The Rights Offering

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Summary Consolidated Financial Data

The information at and for the years ended December 31, 2006 through 2010 is derived in part from, and should be read together with, our audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes incorporated by reference into this prospectus. The per Common Share data and the number of Common Shares outstanding have been adjusted to retroactively give effect to the Reverse Stock Split; however, all information is presented without giving effect to the Private Placement and the TARP Exchange. See page 35 for pro forma financial information.

(1)                                  Held-to-maturity securities at amortized cost, available-for-sale securities at fair value.

(2)                                  Noninterest-bearing demand, interest-bearing demand and savings deposits, and time deposits under $100,000.

(3)                                  Computed on a taxable equivalent basis using an assumed income tax rate of 35%.

(4)                                  Nonaccrual loans include loans held for sale.

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RISK FACTORS

An investment in our Common Shares is subject to risks inherent in our business. The material risks and uncertainties that management believes affect us are described below. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information included or incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently deem immaterial, also may become important factors that affect us. If any one or a combination of these risks occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. This prospectus is qualified in its entirety by these risk factors.

If any of the following risks actually occurs, our financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. If this were to happen, the value of our common stock could decline significantly and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risk Factors Related to our Business

Although we completed the Private Placement, we have incurred significant losses and cannot assure you that we will be profitable in the near term or at all.

With the completion of the Private Placement, our capital ratios currently exceed the levels required by the Consent Order with the FDIC and the DFI, and are at “well-capitalized” levels. However, we have incurred significant losses over the past few years, including net losses of $251.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, $313.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2009 and $138.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008, primarily due to credit costs, including a significant provision for loan and lease losses. Although we have taken a number of steps to reduce our credit exposure, at December 31, 2010, we still had $302.8 million in nonperforming assets and it is possible that we will continue to incur elevated credit costs over the near term, which would adversely impact our overall financial performance and results of operations. We cannot assure you that we will return to profitability in the near term or at all.

The proceeds from the Private Placement may not be sufficient to satisfy our capital and liquidity needs in the future or to satisfy changing regulatory requirements, and we may need to raise additional capital.

The proceeds from the Private Placement have been raised to strengthen our capital base as required by the Consent Order. As mentioned above, our capital ratios currently exceed the levels required by the Consent Order and are at “well-capitalized” levels for regulatory purposes. However, despite the increase in our capital base, if economic conditions continue to be difficult or worsen or fail to improve in a timely manner, or if our operations or financial condition continues to deteriorate or fails to improve, particularly in the residential and commercial real estate markets where our business is located, we may need to raise additional capital. Factors affecting whether we would need to raise additional capital include, among others, additional provisions for loan and lease losses and loan charge-offs, changing requirements of regulators and other risks discussed in this “Risk Factors” section. If we had to raise additional capital, there can be no assurance that we would be able to do so in the amounts required and in a timely manner, or at all. In addition, any additional capital raised may be significantly dilutive to our existing shareholders and may result in the issuance of securities that have rights, preferences and privileges that are senior to our Common Shares.

We are subject to a number of requirements and prohibitions under regulatory orders imposed on us and we cannot assure you whether or when such orders will be lifted.

The bank has been subject to the Consent Order since December 9, 2009, which requires it to improve its capital position, asset quality, liquidity and management oversight, among other matters. The bank was required to increase its Tier 1 capital to maintain a minimum leverage capital ratio and total risk-based capital ratio of at least 10% and 12%, respectively, by March 31, 2010. Although the bank missed this deadline, with the completion of the Private Placement, our capital ratios currently exceed the levels required by the Consent Order and are at “well-capitalized” levels. In addition, the Consent Order requires the bank to, among other things, maintain an adequate allowance for loan and lease losses at all times and systematically reduce the amount of commercial real estate loans, particularly land development and construction loans.

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In addition, the Company is subject to a Written Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (the “FRBSF”) and DFI dated July 2, 2010, which supersedes in its entirety the Memorandum of Understanding that the Company entered into on April 1, 2009 with the FRBSF and DFI. Among other matters, the Agreement provides that unless we receive the consent of the FRBSF and DFI, we cannot: (i) pay dividends; (ii) receive dividends or payments representing a reduction in capital from the bank; (iii) directly or through our non-bank subsidiaries make any payments on subordinated debentures or trust preferred securities; (iv) directly or through any non-bank subsidiaries incur, increase or guarantee any debt; or (v) purchase or redeem any shares of our stock. The Agreement requires that our Board of Directors fully utilize the Company’s financial and managerial resources to ensure that the bank complies with the Consent Order. We were also required to submit to the FRBSF an acceptable capital plan and cash flow projection.

On February 9, 2011, the bank entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (the “MOU”) with the FDIC and DFI relating to the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”). Under the MOU, the bank will be required to (i) fully comply with the BSA and anti-money laundering requirements, (ii) implement a plan to ensure such compliance, including improving and maintaining an adequate system of internal controls, bolstering policies on customer due diligence, providing for comprehensive independent testing to validate compliance, and maintaining an adequate compliance staff, (iii) correct all deficiencies identified by our regulators and (iv) provide them with progress reports.

Although the bank is currently in compliance with the capital ratio requirements in the Consent Order, it is not in compliance with a number of other requirements. We cannot assure you whether or when the bank will be in compliance with the remaining requirements in the Consent Order or whether or when the Consent Order, the Agreement or the MOU will be lifted or terminated. Even if lifted or terminated, we may still be subject to memoranda of understanding or other agreements with regulators that restrict our activities and may also continue to impose capital ratios requirements. The requirements and restrictions of the Consent Order, the Agreement and the MOU are judicially enforceable and the Company or the bank’s failure to comply with such requirements and restrictions may subject the Company and the bank to additional regulatory restrictions including: the imposition of civil monetary penalties; the termination of insurance of deposits; the issuance of removal and prohibition orders against institution-affiliated parties; the appointment of a conservator or receiver for the bank; the issuance of directives to increase capital or enter into a strategic transaction, whether by merger or otherwise, with a third party, if we again fall below the capital ratio requirements; and the enforcement of such actions through injunctions or restraining orders.

We may suffer substantial losses due to our agreements to indemnify investors in the Private Placement against a broad range of potential claims.

In our agreements with the investors in the Private Placement, we agreed to indemnify the investors for a broad range of claims, including losses resulting from the inaccuracy or breach of representations or warranties made by us in such agreements and the breach by us to perform our covenants contained in such agreements. While these indemnities are subject to various limitations, if claims were successfully brought against us, it could potentially result in significant losses for the Company.

As a result of the Private Placement, Carlyle and Anchorage became substantial holders of our Common Shares.

Upon the completion of the Private Placement, Carlyle and Anchorage each became holders of approximately 24% of our outstanding Common Shares and each has a representative and the right to an observer on our and the bank’s Board of Directors. Although Carlyle and Anchorage each entered into certain passivity agreements with the FRB in connection with their investments in us, Carlyle and Anchorage each have substantial influence over our corporate policy and business strategy. In addition, Carlyle and Anchorage each have pre-emptive rights to maintain their percentage ownership of our Common Shares in the event of certain issuances of securities by us. In pursuing their economic interests, Carlyle and Anchorage may have interests that are different from the interests of our other shareholders.

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Resales of our Common Shares in the public market may cause the market price of our Common Shares to fall.

We issued a large number of Common Shares to the Investors in the Private Placement and to the Treasury in the TARP Exchange. The Lead Investors have certain registration rights with respect to the Common Shares held by them following a one-year lock-up period provided in their respective Investment Agreements. The Additional Investors have certain registration rights with respect to the Common Shares purchased by them in the Private Placement until six months following the completion of the Private Placement and the Company intends to register their shares. In addition, in connection with the TARP Exchange, we provided the Treasury with certain registration rights with respect to the Common Shares issued to the Treasury in exchange for our previously outstanding TARP Preferred Stock and the Company intends to register those shares, as well as shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant to purchase Common Shares held by the Treasury. The registration rights for the Lead Investors will allow them to sell their Common Shares without compliance with the volume and manner of sale limitations under Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act and the registration rights for the Additional Investors will allow them to sell their Common Shares before their holding period under Rule 144 expires. The market value of our Common Shares could decline as a result of sales by the Investors and the Treasury from time to time of a substantial amount of the Common Shares held by them.

Our ability to use net operating loss carryovers to reduce future tax payments may be limited or restricted.

We have generated significant NOLs as a result of our recent losses. We generally are able to carry NOLs forward to reduce taxable income in future years. However, our ability to utilize the NOLs is subject to the rules of Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 382 generally restricts the use of NOLs after an “ownership change.” An ownership change occurs if, among other things, the shareholders (or specified groups of shareholders) who own or have owned, directly or indirectly, 5% or more of a corporation’s common stock or are otherwise treated as 5% shareholders under Section 382 and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder increase their aggregate percentage ownership of that corporation’s stock by more than 50 percentage points over the lowest percentage of the stock owned by these shareholders over a three-year rolling period. In the event of an ownership change, Section 382 imposes an annual limitation on the amount of taxable income a corporation may offset with NOL carry forwards. This annual limitation is generally equal to the product of the value of the corporation’s stock on the date of the ownership, multiplied by the long-term tax-exempt rate published monthly by the Internal Revenue Service. Any unused annual limitation may be carried over to later years until the applicable expiration date for the respective NOL carry forwards.

We do not anticipate that our recapitalization, including the Private Placement, the TARP Exchange and this Rights Offering, will cause an “ownership change” within the meaning of Section 382. In addition, in order to reduce the likelihood that future transactions in our Common Shares will result in an ownership change, on November 23, 2010, we adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, which provides an economic disincentive for any person or group to become an owner, for relevant tax purposes, of 4.99% or more of our Common Shares. However, we cannot ensure that our ability to use our NOLs to offset income will not become limited in the future. As a result, we could pay taxes earlier and in larger amounts than would be the case if our NOLs were available to reduce our federal income taxes without restriction.

To further protect our tax benefits, on January 26, 2011, our Board of Directors approved a proposed amendment to our restated articles of incorporation to restrict transfers of our stock if the effect of an attempted transfer would cause the transferee to become an owner, for relevant tax purposes, of 4.99% or more of our Common Shares (a “Threshold Holder”) or cause the beneficial ownership of Threshold Holder to increase (the “Protective Charter Amendment”). At our annual meeting of shareholders on April 27, 2011, we intend to propose the amendment for shareholder approval. The Protective Charter Amendment also does not guarantee that we will not experience an ownership change.

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Because of our participation in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) and under the terms of our exchange agreement with the Treasury, we are subject to restrictions on compensation paid to our executives, which may make it difficult to attract and retain key members of management.

Pursuant to the terms of the TARP Capital Purchase Program, we adopted certain standards for executive compensation and corporate governance for the period during which the Treasury owns any debt or equity securities acquired pursuant to TARP. These standards generally apply to our five most highly compensated senior executive officers, including our Executive Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, and/or certain of these restrictions also apply up to the next 20 most highly compensated senior executives. The standards include, among other things:

·                  ensuring that incentive compensation for senior executives does not encourage unnecessary and excessive risks that threaten the value of the financial institution;

·                  a required clawback of any bonus or incentive compensation paid to a senior executive officer and the next twenty most highly compensated employees based on materially inaccurate financial statements or any other materially inaccurate financial performance metric criteria;

·                  a prohibition on making golden parachute payments to senior executive officers and the next five most highly compensated employees;

·                  an agreement not to deduct for tax purposes annual compensation in excess of $500,000 for each senior executive officer; and

·                  limitations on bonuses and incentive compensation.

We depend on the services of existing management to carry out our business strategy and our recovery plan which we began implementing in March 2010 to improve our financial health and capital ratios. In addition, our success depends in large part on our ability to attract and retain other key employees. See “—We may not be able to attract and retain skilled people” below. The loss of the services of any management personnel, or the inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel in the future, could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In particular, the change to the deductibility limit on executive compensation may increase the overall cost of our compensation programs in future periods and make it more difficult to attract suitable candidates to serve as executive officers.

We are also obligated to comply with any subsequent amendments to these restrictions for so long as we remain subject to such restrictions.

Our Hawaii and, to a lesser extent, California commercial real estate and construction loan operations have a considerable effect on our results of operations.

The performance of our Hawaii and California commercial real estate and construction loans depends on a number of factors, including improvement of the real estate market in which we operate. As we have seen in the Hawaii and California construction and commercial real estate markets since the latter part of 2007, the strength of the real estate market and the results of our operations could continue to be negatively affected by the economic downturn. While we are no longer originating new loans out of our Mainland operations, we still have a sizable California loan portfolio and the performance of that portfolio continues to be subject to market conditions in California.

Declines in the market for commercial property are causing commercial borrowers to suffer losses on their projects and they may be unable to repay their loans. Defaults of these loans or further deterioration in the credit worthiness of any of these borrowers would further negatively affect our financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Declines in housing prices and the supply of existing houses for sale are causing residential developers who are our borrowers to also suffer losses on their projects and encounter difficulty in repaying their loans. Since the third quarter of 2007, we have significantly increased our provision for loan and lease losses as a result of these challenging conditions. During the year ended December 31, 2010, our provision for loan and lease losses amounted to $159.5 million, compared to $348.8 million in 2009 and $171.7 million in 2008, while our percentage of nonperforming assets to total loans and leases, loans held for sale and other real estate was 13.18% for the year ended December 31, 2010, compared to 15.85% in 2009 and 3.52% in 2008. Credit costs were elevated through 2010 and we cannot assure you that we will have an adequate provision for loan and lease losses to cover future losses. If we suffer greater losses than we are projecting, our recovery plan and the ability to improve our position will be materially adversely affected.

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Difficult economic and market conditions have adversely affected our industry and continued economic slowdown in Hawaii or a worsening of current market conditions in general would result in additional adverse effects on us.

The U.S. economy entered into one of the longest economic recessions to have occurred since the Great Depression of the 1930’s in December 2007. Although general economic trends and market conditions have since stabilized to some degree, a continued economic slowdown in Hawaii or a worsening of current market conditions in general would likely result in additional adverse effects on us, including: (i) loan delinquencies may continue to increase; (ii) problem assets and foreclosures may continue to increase leading to more loan charge-offs; (iii) demand for our products and services may decline; (iv) low cost or non-interest bearing deposits may continue to decrease; and (v) collateral for loans made by us, especially involving real estate, may continue to decline in value, in turn reducing customers’ borrowing power and reducing the value of assets and collateral associated with our existing loans.

The high concentration of commercial real estate and construction loans in our portfolio, combined with the deterioration in these sectors caused by the economic downturn, had and may continue to have a significantly more adverse impact on our operating results than many other banks across the nation. Although we have taken a number of steps to reduce our credit risk exposure over the past several quarters, we still had $302.8 million in nonperforming assets at December 31, 2010. If our borrowers continue to experience financial difficulty, or if property values securing our real estate loans decline further, we will continue to incur elevated credit costs due to the composition of our loan portfolio even if market conditions stabilize or improve.

Our allowance for loan and lease losses may not be sufficient to cover actual loan losses, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Additional loan losses will likely occur in the future and may occur at a rate greater than we have experienced to date.

As a lender, we are exposed to the risk that our loan customers may not repay their loans according to their terms and that the collateral or guarantees securing these loans may be insufficient to assure repayment. During the year ended December 31, 2010, our provision for loan and lease losses amounted to $159.5 million, compared to $348.8 million in 2009 and $171.7 million in 2008. Our current allowance for loan and lease losses may not be sufficient to cover future loan losses. We may experience significant loan losses that could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. Management makes various assumptions and judgments about the collectibility of our loan portfolio, which are regularly reevaluated and are based in part on:

·                  current economic conditions and their estimated effects on specific borrowers;

·                  an evaluation of the existing relationships among loans, potential loan losses and the present level of the allowance for loan and lease losses;

·                  results of examinations of our loan portfolios by regulatory agencies; and

·                  management’s internal review of the loan portfolio.

In determining the size of the allowance for loan and lease losses, we rely on an analysis of our loan portfolio, our experience and our evaluation of general economic conditions, as well as the requirements of the Consent Order and other regulatory input. If our assumptions prove to be incorrect, our current allowance for loan and lease losses may not be sufficient. Because of the uncertainty in the economy, volatility in the credit and real estate markets, including specifically, the deterioration in the Hawaii and California real estate markets and our high concentration of commercial real estate and construction loans, we made significant adjustments to our allowance for loan and lease losses in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and may need to make additional adjustments in the future.

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Our ability to maintain adequate sources of funding and liquidity and required capital levels may be negatively impacted by the current economic environment which may, among other things, impact our ability to satisfy our obligations.

Liquidity is essential to our business. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, the sale of investments or loans, and other sources would have a substantial negative effect on our liquidity. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance our activities on terms which are acceptable to us could be impaired by factors that affect us specifically or the financial services industry or economy in general. Factors that could detrimentally impact our access to liquidity sources include concerns regarding the continued deterioration in our financial condition, increased regulatory actions against us and a decrease in the level of our business activity as a result of a downturn in the markets in which our loans or deposits are concentrated. Our ability to borrow could also be impaired by factors that are not specific to us, such as a disruption in the financial markets or negative views and expectations about the prospects for the financial industry in light of the recent turmoil faced by banking organizations and the credit markets.

The management of liquidity risk is critical to the management of our business and our ability to service our customer base. In managing our balance sheet, our primary source of funding is customer deposits. Our ability to continue to attract these deposits and other funding sources is subject to variability based upon a number of factors including volume and volatility in the securities’ markets, our financial condition, our credit rating and the relative interest rates that we are prepared to pay for these liabilities. The availability and level of deposits and other funding sources is highly dependent upon the perception of the liquidity and creditworthiness of the financial institution, which perception can change quickly in response to market conditions or circumstances unique to a particular company. Concerns about our past and future financial condition or concerns about our credit exposure to other persons could adversely impact our sources of liquidity, financial position, including regulatory capital ratios, results of operations and our business prospects.

If the level of deposits were to materially decrease, we would have to raise additional funds by increasing the interest that we pay on certificates of deposits or other depository accounts, seek other debt or equity financing or draw upon our available lines of credit. We rely on commercial and retail deposits, and to a lesser extent, advances from the FHLB and the Federal Reserve discount window, to fund our operations. Although we have historically been able to replace maturing deposits and advances as necessary, we might not be able to replace such funds in the future if, among other things, our results of operations or financial condition or the results of operations or financial condition of the FHLB or market conditions were to change.

Our line of credit with the FHLB serves as our primary outside source of liquidity. By virtue of the Consent Order, the bank is in default under its arrangement with the FHLB. Although the bank has not received any notice, the FHLB has the right to call all outstanding borrowings under this arrangement and is not obligated to make future advances. Our maximum borrowing term is limited to two years. The Federal Reserve discount window also serves as an additional outside source of liquidity. Borrowings under this arrangement are through the Federal Reserve’s secondary facility and are subject to providing additional information regarding the financial condition of the bank and reasons for the borrowing. The duration of borrowings from the Federal Reserve discount window are generally for a very short period, usually overnight. In the event that these outside sources of liquidity become unavailable to us, we will need to seek additional sources of liquidity, including selling assets. We cannot assure you that we will be able to sell assets at a level to allow us to repay borrowings or meet our liquidity needs.

In February 2009, our collateral arrangement with the FHLB converted from a blanket pledge arrangement to a physical possession arrangement whereby we are required to deliver certain original loan documents to the FHLB for the collateral securing our advances. In December 2010, the FHLB expanded the physical possession arrangement to require copies of all loan documents for the collateral securing advances. As a result, should the FHLB elect to call any of our outstanding borrowings, they would maintain possession of the collateral we pledged and could assume legal ownership of the assets in the event we are unable to meet our obligations.

We constantly monitor our activities with respect to liquidity and evaluate closely our utilization of our cash assets; however, there can be no assurance that our liquidity or the cost of funds to us may not be materially and adversely impacted as a result of economic, market, or operational considerations that we may not be able to control.

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In addition, the bank’s ability to accept brokered deposits has been restricted, and the interest rates we may pay are constrained, both of which could impact our liquidity.

In addition to the Consent Order, the Agreement and the MOU, governmental regulation and regulatory actions against us may further impair our operations or restrict our growth.

In addition to the requirements of the Consent Order, the Agreement and the MOU, we are subject to significant governmental supervision and regulation. These regulations are intended primarily for the protection of depositors’ funds, federal deposit insurance funds and the banking system as a whole, not security holders. These regulations affect our lending practices, capital structure, investment practices, dividend policy and growth, among other things. Congress and federal regulatory agencies continually review banking laws, regulations and policies for possible changes. Statutes and regulations affecting our business may be changed at any time and the interpretation of these statutes and regulations by examining authorities may also change.

There can be no assurance that such changes to the statutes and regulations or to their interpretation will not adversely affect our business. Such changes could subject us to additional costs, limit the types of financial services and products we may offer and/or increase the ability of non-banks to offer competing financial services and products, among other things. In addition to governmental supervision and regulation, we are subject to changes in other federal and state laws, including changes in tax laws, which could materially affect the banking industry. We are subject to the rules and regulations of the FRBSF, FDIC and DFI and may be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated by the Consumer Protection Bureau which was recently created pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. If we fail to comply with federal and state bank regulations, the regulators may limit our activities or growth, impose fines on us or ultimately cease our operations. Banking laws and regulations change from time to time. Bank regulations can hinder our ability to compete with financial services companies that are not regulated in the same manner or are less regulated. Federal and state bank regulatory agencies regulate many aspects of our operations. These areas include:

·                  the capital that must be maintained;

·                  the kinds of activities that can be engaged in;

·                  the kinds and amounts of investments that can be made;

·                  the locations of offices;

·                  insurance of deposits and the premiums that we must pay for this insurance; and

·                  how much cash we must set aside as reserves for deposits.

In particular, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law on July 21, 2010. The Dodd-Frank Act provides for a comprehensive overhaul of the financial services industry within the United States. While the full effects of the legislation on us cannot yet be determined, it could result in higher compliance and other costs, reduced revenues and higher capital and liquidity requirements, among other things, which could adversely affect our business.

In addition, bank regulatory authorities have the authority to bring enforcement actions against banks and bank holding companies for unsafe or unsound practices in the conduct of their businesses or for violations of any law, rule or regulation, any condition imposed in writing by the appropriate bank regulatory agency or any written agreement with the authority. Possible enforcement actions against us could include a federal conservatorship or receivership for the bank, the issuance of additional orders that could be judicially enforced, the imposition of civil monetary penalties, the issuance of directives to enter into a strategic transaction, whether by merger or otherwise, with a third party, the termination of insurance of deposits, the issuance of removal and prohibition orders against institution-affiliated parties, and the enforcement of such actions through injunctions or restraining orders.

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While our 2010 audited financial statements assume we will continue our operations on a going concern basis, the opinion of our independent auditors on those financial statements contained an explanatory paragraph that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

The opinion of our independent auditors on our 2010 audited financial statements contained an explanatory paragraph that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.  Our audited financial statements were prepared under the assumption that we will continue our operations on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and the discharge of liabilities in the normal course of business. Our financial statements do not include any adjustments that might be necessary if we are unable to continue as a going concern.  Although we recently completed our $325 million capital raise, if we sustain unanticipated losses or regulators take further action and we cannot continue as a going concern, our shareholders may lose all of their investment in the Company.

We may not be able to attract and retain skilled people.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to attract and retain key people. There are a limited number of qualified persons in Hawaii with the knowledge and experience required to successfully implement our recovery plan. The more senior the executive, the more difficult it is to locate suitable candidates in the local market. Accordingly, in many circumstances, it is necessary for us to recruit potential candidates from the mainland. At this time, new senior executives are required to be approved by our regulators. Suitable candidates for positions may decline to consider employment with the Company given its financial condition and the current regulatory environment, particularly since in some circumstances, this would require that the employee relocate from the mainland to Hawaii, where other employment opportunities in the banking industry may be limited. In addition, it may be difficult for us to offer compensation packages that would be sufficient to convince candidates that are acceptable to our regulators and meet our requirements to agree to become our employee and/or relocate. Our financial condition and the existing uncertainties may result in existing employees seeking positions at other companies where these issues are not present. The unexpected loss of services of other key personnel could have a material adverse impact on our business because of a loss of their skills, knowledge of our market and years of industry experience. If we are not able to promptly recruit qualified personnel, which we require to conduct our operations, our business and our ability to successfully implement our recovery plan could be adversely affected.

The recent turnover in key positions in our finance and credit departments could increase the risk that our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent or detect all errors or acts of fraud.

Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to reasonably assure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accurately accumulated by management, and recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met and depend on the sufficiency of the personnel involved in those functions. There has been recent turnover in key positions in our finance and credit departments as part of the implementation of our recovery plan. We have also experienced significant turnover on our executive management team during fiscal 2010, including the appointments of a new Executive Chairman of the Board in June 2010, new Chief Financial Officer in August 2010 and new Chief Credit Officer in February 2011. The recent changes to our executive management team, combined with the turnover within our finance and credit departments, could increase the risk that our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent or detect all errors or acts of fraud.

A large percentage of our real estate loans are construction loans which involve the additional risk that a project may not be completed, increasing the risk of loss.

Approximately 17% of our real estate loan portfolio as of December 31, 2010 was comprised of construction loans. Seventy-three percent of these construction loans were in Hawaii while 27% were located on the mainland. Many of our construction loans are reliant upon sponsors and/or guarantors for additional support. Repayment of construction loans is dependent upon the successful completion of the construction project, on time and within budget, and the successful sale of a completed project or the conversion of the construction loan into a term loan. If a borrower is unable to complete a construction project or if the marketability or value of the completed development is impaired, proceeds from the sale of the subject property may be insufficient to repay the loan.

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In recent periods, our construction loan portfolio has been significantly impacted by an increase in loan delinquencies and defaults, as well as declining collateral values resulting from the downturn in the commercial real estate markets in Hawaii and California and the significant negative impact this had on our borrowers, guarantors, and many of the projects securing our construction loans. Even if economic conditions stabilize or improve, our construction loan portfolio may continue to experience material credit losses due to our high concentration of loans with exposure to this sector, combined with the continuing uncertainty surrounding many of the projects securing our existing construction loans and the diminished capacity of many of our construction borrowers and guarantors.

A large percentage of our loans are collateralized by real estate and continued deterioration in the real estate market may result in additional losses and adversely affect our financial results.

Our results of operations have been, and in future periods, will continue to be significantly impacted by the economy in Hawaii, and to a lesser extent, other markets we are exposed to including California. Approximately 84% of our loan portfolio as of December 31, 2010 was comprised of loans primarily collateralized by real estate, with the majority of these loans concentrated in Hawaii.

Deterioration of the economic environment in Hawaii, California or other markets we are exposed to, including a continued decline or worsening declines in the real estate market and single-family home resales or a material external shock, may significantly impair the value of our collateral and our ability to sell the collateral upon foreclosure. In the event of a default with respect to any of these loans, amounts received upon sale of the collateral may be insufficient to recover outstanding principal and interest on the loan. Over the past three years, material declines in the value of the real estate assets securing many of our commercial real estate loans has led to significant credit losses in this portfolio. As a result of our particularly high concentration of commercial real estate and construction loans, the risk within our portfolio is higher than many financial institutions and, as a result, our portfolio had been and remains particularly susceptible to significant credit losses during economic downturns and adverse changes in the real estate market. Because of our high concentration of loans secured by real estate (the majority of which were originated several years ago), it is possible that we will continue to experience elevated levels of credit losses and higher Provisions even if the overall real estate market stabilizes or improves due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding many of the specific real estate assets securing our loans and the weakened financial condition of many of our commercial real estate borrowers and guarantors.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle has entered into a consent order with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. If our investment in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is classified as other-than-temporarily impaired or as permanently impaired, our earnings and stockholder’s equity could decrease.

We own stock in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle (“FHLB”). We hold this stock to qualify for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank System and to be eligible to borrow funds under the FHLB’s advance program. The aggregate cost and fair value of our FHLB stock was $48.8 million as of December 31, 2010.

On October 25, 2010, the FHLB entered into a consent order with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (the “FHFA”), which requires the FHLB to take certain specified actions related to its business and operations. Following the filing of the FHLB’s second quarter 2011 quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the SEC, and once the FHLB reaches and maintains certain thresholds, the bank may begin repurchasing member capital stock at par. Further, the FHLB may again be in position to redeem certain capital stock from members and begin paying dividends once the FHLB:

·                  achieves and maintains certain other financial and operational metrics;

·                  remediates certain concerns regarding its oversight and management, asset improvement program, capital adequacy and retained earnings, risk management, compensation practices, examination findings, and information technology; and

·                  returns to a “safe and sound” condition as determined by the FHFA.

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Any stock repurchases, redemptions and dividend payments will be subject to FHFA approval. There continues to be a risk that the FHLB may not be permitted to redeem capital stock from members and begin paying dividends in the future, and that our investment in FHLB stock could be impaired at some time in the future. If this occurs, our earnings and stockholders’ equity would be negatively impacted.

Our business is subject to interest rate risk and fluctuations in interest rates may adversely affect our earnings.

The majority of our assets and liabilities are monetary in nature and subject to risk from changes in interest rates. Like most financial institutions, our earnings and profitability depend significantly on our net interest income, which is the difference between interest income on interest-earning assets, such as loans and investment securities, and interest expense on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings. We expect that we will periodically experience “gaps” in the interest rate sensitivities of our assets and liabilities, meaning that either our interest-bearing liabilities will be more sensitive to changes in market interest rates than our interest-earning assets, or vice versa. If market interest rates should move contrary to our position, this “gap” will work against us and our earnings may be negatively affected. In light of our current volume and mix of interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities, our interest rate margin could be expected to increase during periods of rising interest rates and, conversely, to decline during periods of falling interest rates. We are unable to predict or control fluctuations of market interest rates, which are affected by many factors, including the following:

·                  inflation;

·                  recession;

·                  changes in unemployment;

·                  the money supply;

·                  international disorder and instability in domestic and foreign financial markets; and

·                  governmental actions.

Our asset/liability management strategy may not be able to control our risk from changes in market interest rates and it may not be able to prevent changes in interest rates from having a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. From time to time, we may reposition our assets and liabilities to reduce our net interest income volatility.

We operate in a highly competitive industry and market area.

We face substantial competition in all areas of our operations from a variety of different competitors, many of which are larger and may have more financial resources. Such competitors primarily include national, regional and community banks within the various markets we operate. Additionally, various out-of-state banks conduct significant business in the market areas in which we currently operate. We also face competition from many other types of financial institutions, including, without limitation, savings and loans, credit unions, finance companies, brokerage firms, insurance companies, factoring companies and other financial intermediaries.

The financial services industry could become even more competitive as a result of legislative, regulatory and technological changes and continued consolidation. Banks, securities firms and insurance companies can merge under the umbrella of a financial holding company, which can offer virtually any type of financial service, including banking, securities underwriting, insurance (both agency and underwriting) and merchant banking. Also, technology has lowered barriers to entry and made it possible for non-banks to offer products and services traditionally provided by banks, such as automatic transfer and automatic payment systems. Many of our competitors have fewer regulatory constraints and may have lower cost structures. Additionally, due to their size, many competitors may be able to achieve economies of scale and, as a result, may offer a broader range of products and services as well as better pricing for those products and services than we can.

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Our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, including, among other things:

·                  the ability to develop, maintain and build upon long-term customer relationships based on top quality service, high ethical standards and safe, sound assets;

·                  the ability to expand our market position;

·                  the scope, relevance and pricing of products and services offered to meet customer needs and demands;

·                  the rate at which we introduce new products and services relative to its competitors;

·                  customer satisfaction with our level of service; and

·                  industry and general economic trends.

Failure to perform in any of these areas could significantly weaken our competitive position, which could adversely affect our growth and profitability, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

The soundness of our financial condition may also affect our competitiveness. Customers may decide not to do business with the bank due to its financial condition. In addition, our ability to compete is impacted by the limitations on our activities imposed under the Consent Order and the Agreement. We have and continue to face additional regulatory restrictions that our competitors may not be subject to, including reducing our commercial real estate loan portfolio, improving the overall risk profile of the Company and restrictions on the amount of interest we can pay on deposit accounts, which could adversely impact our ability to compete and attract and retain customers.

The soundness of other financial institutions could adversely affect us.

Our ability to engage in routine funding transactions could be adversely affected by the actions and commercial soundness of other financial institutions. Defaults by, or even rumors or questions about, one or more financial services institutions, or the financial services industry generally, have led to market-wide liquidity problems and could lead to losses or defaults by us or by other institutions. There is no assurance that any such losses would not materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our deposit customers may pursue alternatives to deposits at our bank or seek higher yielding deposits causing us to incur increased funding costs.

We are facing increasing deposit-pricing pressures. Checking and savings account balances and other forms of deposits can decrease when our deposit customers perceive alternative investments, such as the stock market or other non-depository investments as providing superior expected returns or seek to spread their deposits over several banks to maximize FDIC insurance coverage. Furthermore, technology and other changes have made it more convenient for the bank’s customers to transfer funds into alternative investments including products offered by other financial institutions or non-bank service providers. Additional increases in short-term interest rates could increase transfers of deposits to higher yielding deposits. Efforts and initiatives we undertake to retain and increase deposits, including deposit pricing, can increase our costs. When the bank’s customers move money out of bank deposits in favor of alternative investments or into higher yielding deposits, or spread their accounts over several banks, we can lose a relatively inexpensive source of funds, thus increasing our funding costs. The bank’s financial condition compared to other top Hawaiian financial institutions may affect our customer’s decisions to keep their deposit accounts with us.

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The fiscal, monetary and regulatory policies of the federal government and its agencies could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

The Federal Reserve Board regulates the supply of money and credit in the United States. Its policies determine in large part the cost of funds for lending and investing and the return earned on those loans and investments, both of which affect the net interest margin. It also can materially decrease the value of financial assets we hold, such as debt securities. Its policies also can adversely affect borrowers, potentially increasing the risk that they may fail to repay their loans. Changes in Federal Reserve Board policies and our regulatory environment generally are beyond our control, and we are unable to predict what changes may occur or the manner in which any future changes may affect our business, financial condition and results of operation.

Increases in deposit insurance premiums and special FDIC assessments may decrease our future earnings.

In May 2009, the FDIC announced that it had voted to levy a special assessment on insured institutions in order to facilitate the rebuilding of the Deposit Insurance Fund. The assessment, which was payable on September 30, 2009, is in addition to a planned increase in premiums and a change in the way regular premiums are assessed, which the FDIC previously approved. The cost of the special assessment was equal to five basis points of the bank’s total assets minus Tier 1 capital as of June 30, 2009 and resulted in a charge of approximately $2.5 million. On November 17, 2009, the FDIC issued new assessment regulations that require FDIC-insured institutions to prepay on December 30, 2009 their estimated quarterly risk-based assessments for the fourth quarter 2009 and for all of 2010, 2011 and 2012; however certain financial institutions, including the bank, were exempted from the new prepayment regulations and will continue to pay their risk-based assessments on a quarterly basis. The FDIC also adopted a uniform three-basis point increase in assessment rates effective on January 1, 2011; however, in October 2010, the FDIC adopted a new DIF restoration plan pursuant to which the FDIC will forego the uniform three-basis point increase in initial assessment rates scheduled to take place on January 1, 2011 and maintain the current schedule of assessment rates for all depository institutions.

The recent assessment increases and special assessment discussed above, along with any future assessment increases and/or special assessments applicable to the bank, may increase our expenses and adversely impact our earnings.

The recent repeal of federal prohibitions on payment of interest on demand deposits could increase our interest expense.

All federal prohibitions on the ability of financial institutions to pay interest on demand deposit accounts were repealed as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. As a result, beginning on July 21, 2011, financial institutions could commence offering interest on demand deposits to compete for clients. We do not yet know what interest rates other institutions may offer. Our interest expense will increase and our net interest margin will decrease if we have to offer higher rates of interest then we currently offer on demand deposits to attract additional customers or maintain current customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The value of certain securities in our investment securities portfolio may be negatively affected by disruptions in the market for these securities.

The market for certain investment securities held within our investment portfolio was impacted by the economic downturn over the past three years. Coupled with uncertainty surrounding the credit risk associated with the underlying collateral, this has caused discrepancies in valuation estimates obtained from third parties. We value some of our investments using cash flow and valuation models which include certain subjective estimates that we believe reflect the estimates a purchaser of such securities would use if such a transaction were to occur. The volatile market may affect the value of these securities, such as through reduced valuations due to the perception of heightened credit and liquidity risks, in addition to interest rate risk typically associated with these securities. There can be no assurance that declines in market value associated with these disruptions will not result in impairment of these assets that may result in accounting charges that could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements and capital ratios.

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Our business could be adversely affected by unfavorable actions from rating agencies.

Ratings assigned by ratings agencies to us, our affiliates or our securities may impact the decision of certain customers, in particular, institutions, to do business with us. A rating downgrade or a negative rating could adversely affect our deposits and our business relationships. On February 23, 2011, Fitch Ratings upgraded the long-term Issuer Default Rating of the Company and the bank from CC to B- and removed the Company and the bank from Rating Watch Evolving. However, our ratings may not improve further and may be downgraded in the future if there are adverse developments concerning our business.

We rely on dividends from our subsidiaries for most of our revenue.

Because we are a holding company with no significant operations other than our bank, we depend upon dividends from our bank for a substantial portion of our revenues.

In addition to obtaining approval from the FDIC and DFI, Hawaii law only permits the bank to pay dividends out of retained earnings. Given that the bank had an accumulated deficit of $483.9 million at December 31, 2010, the bank is prohibited from paying any dividends until this deficit is eliminated. Accordingly, we do not anticipate that the bank will be permitted to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

In addition, even if the bank was able to pay us dividends, we do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our Common Shares in the foreseeable future.

Our information systems may experience an interruption or breach in security.

We rely heavily on communications and information systems to conduct our business. Any failure, interruption or breach in security of these systems could result in failures or disruptions in our customer relationship management, general ledger, deposit, loan and other systems. While we have policies and procedures designed to prevent or limit the effect of the failure, interruption or security breach of our information systems, there can be no assurance that any such failures, interruptions or security breaches will not occur or, if they do occur, that they will be adequately addressed. The occurrence of any failures, interruptions or security breaches of our information systems could damage our reputation, result in a loss of customer business, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny or expose us to civil litigation and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We continually encounter technological change.

The financial services industry is continually undergoing rapid technological change with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services. The effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to better serve customers and to reduce costs. Our future success depends, in part, upon our ability to address the needs of our customers by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy customer demands, as well as to create additional efficiencies in our operations. Many of our competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. We may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to its customers. Failure to successfully keep pace with technological change affecting the financial services industry could have a material adverse impact on our business and, in turn, our financial condition and results of operations.

Financial services companies depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about customers and counterparties.

In deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions, we may rely on information furnished by or on behalf of customers and counterparties, including financial statements, credit reports and other financial information. We may also rely on representations of those customers, counterparties or other third parties, such as independent auditors, as to the accuracy and completeness of that information. Reliance on inaccurate or misleading financial statements, credit reports or other financial information could have a material adverse impact on our business and, in turn, our financial condition and results of operations.

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We are subject to various legal claims and litigation.

From time to time, customers and others that we do business with make claims and take legal action against us for various business occurrences, including the performance of our fiduciary responsibilities. Regardless of whether these claims and legal actions are founded or unfounded, if such claims and legal actions are not resolved in a manner favorable to us, they may result in significant financial liability and/or adversely affect the market perception of us and our products and services, as well as impact customer demand for our products and services. Any financial liability or reputational damage could have a material adverse effect on our business, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Even if these claims and legal actions do not result in a financial liability or reputational damage, defending these claims and actions have resulted in, and will continue to result in, increased legal and professional services costs, which adds to our noninterest expense and negatively impacts our operating results.

Risk Factors Related to this Rights Offering

The subscription price determined for this Rights Offering is not necessarily an indication of the fair value of our Common Shares.

The price of the shares offered in this Rights Offering was set to equal the price paid by Investors in the Private Placement. This price is not necessarily related to our book value, tangible book value, multiple of earnings or any other established criteria of fair value and may or may not be considered the fair value of our Common Shares to be offered in this Rights Offering. After the completion of this Rights Offering, our Common Shares may trade at prices below the subscription price.

If you do not exercise your Rights, your percentage ownership will be diluted.

We will issue up to 2,000,000 Common Shares in this Rights Offering. If you choose not to exercise your Basic Subscription Rights prior to the expiration of this Rights Offering, your relative ownership interest in our Common Shares will be diluted relative to shareholders who exercise their Rights.

If you do not act promptly and follow the subscription instructions, your exercise of Rights will be rejected.

If you desire to purchase shares in this Rights Offering, you must act promptly to ensure that the subscription agent actually receives all required forms and payments before the expiration of this Rights Offering at 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011. If you are a beneficial owner of shares, you must act promptly to ensure that your broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee acts for you and that the subscription agent receives all required forms and payments before this Rights Offering expires. We are not responsible if your nominee fails to ensure that the subscription agent receives all required forms and payments before this Rights Offering expires. If you fail to complete and sign the required subscription forms, send an incorrect payment amount, or otherwise fail to follow the subscription procedures that apply to the exercise of your Rights before this Rights Offering expires, the subscription agent will reject your subscription or accept it only to the extent of the payment received. Neither we nor our subscription agent undertakes any responsibility or action to contact you concerning an incomplete or incorrect subscription form or payment, nor are we under any obligation to correct such forms or payment. We have the sole discretion to determine whether a subscription exercise properly complies with the subscription procedures.

You will not be able to sell the Common Shares you buy in this Rights Offering until the shares you elect to purchase are issued to you.

If you purchase shares in this Rights Offering by submitting a rights certificate and payment, we will mail you a direct registration account statement or, upon request, a stock certificate as soon as practicable following the expiration of this Rights Offering. If your shares are held by a broker, dealer, custodian bank or other nominee and you purchase shares, your account with your nominee will be credited by your nominee. Until the Common Shares you elect to purchase are issued to you, you may not be able to sell your shares even though the Common Shares issued in this Rights Offering will be listed for trading on the NYSE. The stock price may decline between the time you decide to sell your shares and the time you are actually able to sell your shares.

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There is no prior market for the Rights.

We anticipate that the Rights will be eligible to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “CPF-RT” from the commencement of this Rights Offering until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011, the last trading day prior to the expiration of this Rights Offering. The Rights are a new issue of securities, however, and do not have an established trading market. We cannot give you any assurance that a market for the Rights will develop or, if a market does develop, whether it will be sustained during the period when the Rights are transferable, or at what prices the Rights will trade. Therefore, we cannot assure you that you will be able to sell any of your Rights or as to the value you may receive in a sale. Commissions and applicable taxes or broker fees may apply if you sell your Rights. Subject to certain earlier deadlines described in the section entitled “The Rights Offering — Selling Rights through the Subscription Agent,” the Rights are transferable during the period the Rights are eligible for trading on the NYSE as described above, following which period they will no longer be transferable. The subscription agent will only facilitate sales or transfers of the physical Rights until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on [ ], 2011, which is five trading days prior to the expiration date of this Rights Offering. If you wish to sell or otherwise transfer your Rights or the subscription agent tries to sell or otherwise transfer Rights on your behalf, but such Rights cannot be sold or otherwise transferred, or if you provide the subscription agent with instructions to exercise the Rights and your instructions are not timely received by the subscription agent or if you do not provide any instructions to exercise your Rights, then the Rights will expire and will be void and no longer exercisable.

This Rights Offering may cause the price of our Common Shares to decrease.

The Common Shares that will be issuable in this Rights Offering may cause the price of our Common Shares to decrease. If the holders of the Common Shares purchased in the Rights Offering or if the Investors or the Treasury choose to sell some or all of those shares, the resulting sales could further depress the market price of our Common Stock.

The future price of our Common Shares may be less than the $10 subscription price per share in this Rights Offering.

If you exercise your Rights to purchase Common Shares in this Rights Offering, you may not be able to sell them later at or above the $10 subscription price in this Rights Offering. The actual market price of our Common Shares could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control. See “—Risk Factors Related to Our Common Stock—The market price of our Common Shares has declined significantly and is volatile”.

If you exercise your Rights, you commit to purchasing the Common Shares at the designated subscription price and may not revoke your Rights even if the public trading market price of such shares decreases below the subscription price.

Your exercise of Rights to purchase our Common Shares is irrevocable. If you exercise your Rights and, afterwards, the public trading market price of our Common Shares decreases below the subscription price, you will have committed to buying our Common Shares at a price above the prevailing market price and could have an immediate unrealized loss. Our Common Shares are currently listed for trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “CPF,” and the last reported price of our Common Shares on the NYSE on February 22, 2011 was $30.00 per share. Following the exercise of your Rights, you may not be able to sell your Common Shares at a price equal to or greater than the subscription price.

Because our management will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from this Rights Offering, you may not agree with how we use the proceeds, and we may not invest the proceeds successfully.

While we currently anticipate that we will use the net proceeds of this Rights Offering to make capital contributions to the bank and for other general corporate purposes, including payment of the accrued and unpaid interest on our junior subordinated debentures relating to our trust preferred securities which has been deferred since August 20, 2009, our management may allocate the proceeds as it deems appropriate. In addition, market factors may require our management to allocate portions of the proceeds for other purposes. Accordingly, you will be relying on the judgment of our management with regard to the use of the proceeds of this Rights Offering, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to influence how the proceeds are being used. If we invest the proceeds pending application of the funds, it is possible that the proceeds will be invested in a way that does not yield a favorable, or any, return for us.

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There is no obligation for our directors or executive officers to subscribe for any Common Shares in this Rights Offering.

To the extent they held shares of Common Stock as of the Record Date, our directors and officers are entitled to participate in the Rights Offering on the same terms and conditions applicable to all rights holders. We have been informed that all such directors and executive officers intend to participate in this Rights Offering. Certain of our directors and executive officers participated in the Private Placement.

Our 401(k) Plan, which is receiving Rights, is not permitted to acquire, hold or dispose of Rights absent an exemption from the United States Department of Labor.

The 401(k) Plan is receiving Rights with respect to the Common Shares held by the 401(k) Plan on behalf of the participants (and other account holders) even though 401(k) plans and other plans subject to ERISA, such as ours, are not permitted under ERISA or Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code to acquire, hold or dispose of Rights absent an exemption from the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”). We have submitted a request to the DOL that an exemption be granted on a retroactive basis, effective to the commencement of the Rights Offering, with respect to the acquisition, holding and exercise of the Rights by our 401(k) Plan and its participants (and other account holders). If an exemption is not granted, we may be subject to remedial action or other consequences under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.

Risk Factors Related to Our Common Stock

The market price of our Common Shares has declined significantly and is volatile.

The trading price of our Common Shares has declined significantly since February 2007 when our stock price traded above $800.00 per share (after giving effect to the Reverse Stock Split). On the Record Date, the closing price of our Common Shares was $29.02 per share. On February 22, 2011, the first trading day after the closing of the Private Placement and the TARP Exchange, the closing price of our Common Shares was $30.00 per share. On [  ], 2011, the closing price of our Common Shares was $[   ] per share. The per share purchase price in the Private Placement was $10, which is the subscription price per share in this Rights Offering. The trading price of our Common Shares may fluctuate widely as a result of a number of factors, many of which are outside our control. In addition, the stock market is subject to fluctuations in the share prices and trading volumes that affect the market prices of the shares of many companies. These broad market fluctuations could adversely affect the market price of our Common Shares. Among the factors that could affect our stock price are:

·                  failure to comply with all of the requirements of the Consent Order, the Agreement and the MOU, and the possibility of resulting action by the regulators;

·                  the per share purchase price in the Private Placement

·                  further deterioration of asset quality;

·                  the incurrence of continuing losses;

·                  actual or anticipated quarterly fluctuations in our operating results and financial condition;

·                  changes in revenue or earnings/losses estimates or publication of research reports and recommendations by financial analysts;

·                  failure to meet analysts’ revenue or earnings/losses estimates;

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·                  speculation in the press or investment community;

·                  strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions or restructurings;

·                  additions or departures of key personnel;

·                  fluctuations in the stock price and operating results of our competitors;

·                  future sales of our Common Shares, including sales of our Common Shares in short sale transactions;

·                  general market conditions and, in particular, developments related to market conditions for the financial services industry;

·                  proposed or adopted regulatory changes or developments;

·                  anticipated or pending investigations, proceedings or litigation that involve or affect us; or

·                  domestic and international economic factors unrelated to our performance.

The stock market and, in particular, the market for financial institution stocks, have experienced significant volatility over the past few years. In addition, the trading volume in our Common Shares may fluctuate more than usual and cause significant price variations to occur. In addition, sales of shares by Investors and the Treasury may cause our share price to decrease. Accordingly, the Common Shares that you purchase may trade at a price lower than that at which they were purchased. Volatility in the market price of our Common Shares may prevent individual shareholders from being able to sell their shares when they want or at prices they find attractive.

A significant decline in our stock price could result in substantial losses for shareholders and could lead to costly and disruptive securities litigation.

Our Common Shares are equity and therefore are subordinate to our subsidiaries’ indebtedness and preferred stock.

Our Common Shares are equity interests and do not constitute indebtedness. As such, Common Shares will rank junior to all current and future indebtedness and other non-equity claims on us with respect to assets available to satisfy claims against us, including in the event of our liquidation. We may, and the bank and our other subsidiaries may also, incur additional indebtedness from time to time and may increase our aggregate level of outstanding indebtedness. As of December 31, 2010, we had $105.0 million in face amount of trust preferred securities outstanding and accrued and unpaid dividends thereon of $5.1 million. Additionally, holders of Common Shares are subject to the prior dividend and liquidation rights of any holders of our preferred stock that may be outstanding from time to time. Our Board of Directors is authorized to cause us to issue additional classes or series of preferred stock without any action on the part of our stockholders. If we issue preferred shares in the future that have a preference over our Common Shares with respect to the payment of dividends or upon liquidation, or if we issue preferred shares with voting rights that dilute the voting power of the Common Shares, then the rights of holders of our Common Shares or the market price of our Common Shares could be adversely affected.

There is a limited trading market for our Common Shares and as a result, you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you pay for them.

Although our Common Shares are listed for trading on the NYSE, the volume of trading in our Common Shares is lower than many other companies listed on the NYSE. A public trading market with depth, liquidity and orderliness depends on the presence in the market of willing buyers and sellers of our Common Shares at any given time. This presence depends on the individual decisions of investors and general economic and market conditions over which we have no control.

Our Common Shares are not insured and you could lose the value of your entire investment.

An investment in our Common Shares is not a deposit and is not insured against loss by the government.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this prospectus that are not statements of historical fact constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”), notwithstanding that such statements are not specifically identified. In addition, certain statements may be contained in our future filings with the SEC, in press releases and in oral and written statements made by or with the approval of us that are not statements of historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. Examples of forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: (i) projections of revenues, expenses, income or loss, earnings or loss per share, the payment or nonpayment of dividends, capital structure and other financial items; (ii) statements of plans, objectives and expectations of Central Pacific Financial Corp. or its management or Board of Directors, including those relating to regulatory actions, business plans, products or services; (iii) statements of future economic performance; and (iv) statements of assumptions underlying such statements. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “targeted,” “continue,” “remain,” “will,” “should,” “may” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include but are not limited to:

·                  the effect of and our failure to comply with all of the requirements of the Consent Order, the Agreement, the MOU and any further regulatory actions;

·                  our ability to execute on our recovery plan;

·                  oversupply of inventory and adverse conditions in the Hawaii and California real estate markets and further weakness in the construction industry;

·                  adverse changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and, as a result, increased loan delinquency rates, further deterioration in asset quality and further losses in our loan portfolio;

·                  the impact of local, national, and international economies and events (including natural disasters such as wildfires, tsunamis and earthquakes) on the Company’s business and operations and on tourism, the military, and other major industries operating within the Hawaii market and any other markets in which the Company does business

·                  deterioration or malaise in economic conditions, including the continued destabilizing factors in the financial industry and continued deterioration of the real estate market, as well as the impact of declining levels of consumer and business confidence in the state of the economy in general and in financial institutions in particular;

·                  the impact of regulatory action on the Company and the bank and legislation affecting the banking industry;

·                  changes in estimates of future reserve requirements based upon the periodic review thereof under relevant regulatory and accounting requirements;

·                  the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act, other regulatory reform, including but not limited to government-sponsored enterprise reform, and any related rules and regulations on our business operations and competitiveness, including the impact of executive compensation restrictions, which may affect our ability to retain and recruit executives in competition with other firms who do not operate under those restrictions;

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·                  the costs and effects of legal and regulatory developments, including the resolution of legal proceedings or regulatory or other governmental inquiries and the results of regulatory examinations or reviews;

·                  the effects of and changes in trade and monetary and fiscal policies and laws, including the interest rate policies of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”);

·                  inflation, interest rate, securities market and monetary fluctuations;

·                  movements in interest rates;

·                  negative trends in our market capitalization and adverse changes in the price of our Common Shares;

·                  political instability;

·                  acts of war or terrorism;

·                  changes in consumer spending, borrowings and savings habits;

·                  technological changes;

·                  changes in the competitive environment among financial holding companies and other financial service providers;

·                  the effect of changes in accounting policies and practices, as may be adopted by the regulatory agencies, as well as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and other accounting standard setters;

·                  ability to retain and attract skilled employees;

·                  changes in our organization, compensation and benefit plans; and

·                  our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing items.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION

On or about [ ], 2011, we will distribute at no cost the Rights to our shareholders of record as of 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on February 17, 2011; however, pursuant to normal practices of the NYSE, shares of our Common Stock traded during the period from February 15, 2011 through February 25, 2011 traded with the Rights (i.e., with “due bills” attached). If you wish to exercise your Rights, you must timely comply with the exercise procedures described in “The Rights Offering — Method of Exercising Rights.” We anticipate that the Rights will be eligible to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “CPF-RT” from the commencement of this Rights Offering until 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, on the last trading day before the expiration date of this Rights Offering.

We have agreed to pay the subscription agent customary fees plus certain expenses in connection with this Rights Offering. We have not employed any brokers, dealers or underwriters in connection with the solicitation of exercise of Rights. Except as described in this section, we are not paying any other commissions, underwriting fees or discounts in connection with this Rights Offering.

Some of our employees may solicit responses from you as a holder of Rights, but we will not pay our employees any commissions or compensation for these services other than their normal employment compensation. We estimate that our total expenses in connection with this Rights Offering will be $[ ].

If you have any questions, you should contact the subscription agent as provided in “The Rights Offering — Subscription Agent.”

USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds of this Rights Offering, after deducting estimated expenses of this Rights Offering payable by us, will be approximately $[ ] million assuming the exercise of Rights to purchase all 2,000,000 Common Shares in this Rights Offering. Because there is no minimum number of shares that must be sold in this Rights Offering, we can provide no assurance regarding the amount of capital we will actually raise in this Rights Offering. We intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering to capitalize the bank and for other general corporate purposes, including the potential payment of the accrued and unpaid interest on our junior subordinated debentures relating to our trust preferred securities which has been deferred since August 20, 2009.

Our management has broad discretion in deciding how to allocate the net proceeds of this Rights Offering. Until we designate the entire use of the net proceeds, we will invest them temporarily in liquid short-term securities.

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MARKET FOR COMMON SHARES AND DIVIDEND POLICY

Price Range of Common Shares

Our Common Shares are traded on the NYSE under the symbol “CPF.”

The following table sets forth the quarterly high and low sales prices of our Common Shares on the NYSE for the periods indicated after adjustment of all amounts to retroactively reflect the Reverse Stock Split:

On February 22, 2011, the last closing sale price reported on the NYSE for our Common Shares was $30.00 per share.

Holders

As of the Record Date for this Rights Offering, there were 4,096 common shareholders of record.

Dividend Policy

The holders of our Common Shares share proportionately, on a per share basis, in all dividends and other distributions declared by our Board of Directors. On January 28, 2009, our Board of Directors suspended the payment of cash dividends to preserve capital during these challenging economic times. Accordingly, no cash dividends were declared on our Common Shares in 2010 and 2009. Dividends by the Company require the approval of the FRB, DFI and the Treasury. Dividends by the bank require the approval of the FDIC and DFI.

As a result of the Agreement effective July 2, 2010 and due to the terms of our trust preferred securities, our ability to pay dividends with respect to Common Shares is subject to obtaining approval from the FRBSF, DFI and the Treasury and is restricted until our obligations under our trust preferred securities are brought current. We will seek regulatory approval to pay all deferred payments under our trust preferred securities.  Under our exchange agreement with the Treasury, any dividend payment will continue to require the approval of the Treasury until the earlier of January 9, 2012 and such time as the Treasury ceases to own any of our or our affiliates’ securities. Additionally, our ability to pay dividends depends on our ability to obtain dividends from the bank. The bank, in addition to obtaining approval from the FDIC and DFI, is not permitted under Hawaii law to pay dividends except out of retained earnings. Given that the bank had an accumulated deficit of $483.9 million at December 31, 2010, the bank is prohibited from paying any dividends until this deficit is eliminated. Accordingly, we do not anticipate that the bank or the Company will be paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

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CAPITALIZATION AND PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The following tables contain certain financial information as of December 31, 2010 and for the year ended December 31, 2010:

·                  on an actual basis; and

·                  on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give effect to the following transactions comprising our recapitalization: the Reverse Stock Split, the Private Placement, the TARP Exchange and this Rights Offering assuming the exercise of Rights to purchase all 2,000,000 Common Shares in this Rights Offering for gross proceeds of $20 million.

These tables should be read together with our consolidated historical financial statements, the accompanying notes thereto and Management’s Discussion and Analysis in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010, which are incorporated herein by reference.

Pro Forma Consolidated Balance Sheet

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Pro Forma Consolidated Statement of Operations

(1)          The following table illustrates the impact of each of the transactions.  In connection with the TARP Exchange, preferred stock and accrued and unpaid dividends and interest thereon were converted to common stock and the Company amended the Treasury’s warrant to purchase 79,288 shares of common stock to reduce the exercise price from $255.40 per share to $10.00 per share.  As the Amended TARP Warrant includes a provision to adjust the exercise price for certain subsequent issuances of common stock that would result in dilution to the Amended TARP Warrant, the fair value of the Amended TARP Warrant using a Black-Scholes pricing model of $1,830 is recorded as other liabilities.  Estimated cash fees and expenses associated with the Private Placement and the TARP Exchange are $22,000 and estimated cash fees and expenses associated with the Rights Offering are $700.

(2)          Accrued and unpaid dividends and interest as of December 31, 2010 totaled $11,357.  Accrued and unpaid dividends and interest as of February 18, 2011, the date of the TARP Exchange, totaled $12,326.  Actual common shares issued to the Treasury in the TARP Exchange totaled 5,620,117.

(3)   Assumes 25 basis points of earnings on net new cash which is recorded as additional interest income in the pro forma consolidated statement of operations.

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DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK

In this section, references to “the Company,” “we,” “our,” and “us” refer only to Central Pacific Financial Corp. and not its consolidated subsidiaries.

The following is a summary description of our Common Shares. This description is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the provisions of our restated articles of incorporation and bylaws, the applicable provisions of the Hawaii Business Corporation Act (the “HBCA”) and the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, dated as of November 23, 2010. Our restated articles of incorporation and amended bylaws are filed as exhibits to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and our Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, dated as of November 23, 2010, is filed as an exhibit to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed on November 24, 2010 (see “Where You Can Find More Information”).

Our authorized common stock consists of 185,000,000 shares of common stock, no par value per share, which remains unchanged after the Reverse Stock Split. As of the Record Date, which followed the Reverse Stock Split, 1,528,935 Common Shares were issued and outstanding. After the closing of the Private Placement and TARP Exchange on February 18, 2011, 39,649,052 Common Shares were issued and outstanding. Our Common Shares were held by 4,096 shareholders of record as of the Record Date. Our outstanding Common Shares are fully paid and nonassessable. The issued Common Shares represent non-withdrawable capital, are not accounts of an insurable type, and are not federally insured. In addition, the Treasury holds a warrant to purchase 79,288 Common Shares, subject to adjustment.

Dividend Rights

Holders of our Common Shares are entitled to receive dividends if, as and when declared by our Board of Directors out of any funds legally available for dividends. There are currently several limitations on our ability to pay dividends. For more information, see “Market for Common Shares and Dividend Policy.”

Liquidation and Dissolution

In the event of our liquidation or dissolution, the holders of Common Shares are entitled to receive proportionately all assets available for distribution to shareholders after the payment of all debts and other liabilities and subject to the prior rights of any outstanding preferred stock. Holders of Common Shares are not entitled to a liquidation preference in respect of those shares.

No Preemptive or Conversion Rights

Holders of Common Shares generally do not have preemptive rights to purchase additional Common Shares and have no conversion or redemption rights under our restated articles of incorporation or the HBCA.

The Investors have certain contractual preemptive rights. Please see the Investment Agreements and the form of subscription agreement, filed as exhibits to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on November 5, 2010, December 27, 2010 and February 11, 2011.

Voting Rights

Holders of our Common Shares are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters submitted to a vote of shareholders and do not have cumulative voting rights. An election of directors by our shareholders shall be determined by a plurality of the votes cast by the shareholders entitled to vote on the election.

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Tax Benefits Preservation Plan

We have generated significant net operating losses carry-overs as a result of our recent losses. Our ability to use these net operating loss carry-forwards to offset future taxable income will be limited if we experience an “ownership change” as defined in Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 382 generally restricts the use of NOLs after an “ownership change.” An ownership change occurs if, among other things, the shareholders (or specified groups of shareholders) who own or have owned, directly or indirectly, 5% or more of a corporation’s common stock or are otherwise treated as 5% shareholders under Section 382 and the Treasury regulations promulgated thereunder increase their aggregate percentage ownership of that corporation’s stock by more than 50 percentage points over the lowest percentage of the stock owned by these shareholders over a three-year rolling period. In the event of an ownership change, Section 382 imposes an annual limitation on the amount of taxable income a corporation may offset with NOL carry forwards. This annual limitation is generally equal to the product of the value of the corporation’s stock on the date of the ownership, multiplied by the long-term tax-exempt rate published monthly by the Internal Revenue Service. Any unused annual limitation may be carried over to later years until the applicable expiration date for the respective NOL carry forwards.

In order to reduce the likelihood that future transactions in our Common Shares will result in an ownership change, on November 23, 2010, we adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, which provides an economic disincentive for any person or group to become a Threshold Holder.

In connection with the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, the Board of Directors declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right (a “Preferred Share Purchase Right”) in respect of each Common Share outstanding as of November 30, 2010 and to become outstanding during the term of the plan. Each Preferred Share Purchase Right represents the right to purchase, upon the terms and subject to the conditions in the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, 1/10,000th of a share of Junior Participating Preferred Stock, Series C, no par value, for $6.00, subject to adjustment. The Preferred Share Purchase Rights will become exercisable by holders of those rights (other than the Threshold Owner) upon certain triggering events, such as any person becoming a Threshold Holder. Prior to such a triggering event, the Board of Directors may, at its option, exchange all or part of the then outstanding and exercisable Preferred Share Purchase Rights at an exchange ratio of one Common Share per Preferred Share Purchase Right, subject to adjustments and limitations described in the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan. For more information on our Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, see our Form 8-A and Form 8-K, and the related exhibits, filed with the SEC on November 24, 2010.

To further protect our tax benefits, on January 26, 2011, our Board of Directors approved the Protective Charter Amendment. At our annual meeting of shareholders on April 27, 2011, we intend to propose the Protective Charter Amendment for shareholder approval. The Protective Charter Amendment also does not guarantee that we will not experience an ownership change.

Restrictions on Ownership — Bank Holding Company Act

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (the “BHCA”) requires any “bank holding company” (as defined in the BHCA) to obtain the approval of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System prior to acquiring more than 5% of our outstanding Common Shares. Any holder of 25% or more of our outstanding Common Shares, other than an individual, is subject to regulation as a bank holding company under the BHCA. In addition, any person other than a bank holding company is required to obtain prior approval of the Federal Reserve Board to acquire 10% or more of our outstanding Common Shares under the Change in Bank Control Act of 1978.

Anti-Takeover Effects of Hawaii Law

The Hawaii Control Share Acquisitions Act (the “CSA Act”) is applicable to CPF and is designed to inhibit hostile acquisitions by restricting Control Share Acquisitions. A Control Share Acquisition is the acquisition of shares of an issuer resulting in beneficial ownership of a new range of voting power (with thresholds for the ranges starting at 10% and set at 10% intervals up to a majority) for the election of directors. Certain acquisitions are exempt from the CSA Act, including acquisitions from the issuer or where the issuer’s prior approval has been obtained. The CSA Act prohibits the consummation of a Control Share Acquisition unless each such acquisition is separately approved by a majority of the corporation’s outstanding shares (excluding shares beneficially owned by the acquiring person) and  imposes certain state law disclosure and timing requirements. If a Control Share Acquisition is made without the requisite shareholder approval, then, for a period of one year after the acquisition, the shares acquired by the acquiring person will (i) be denied voting rights, (ii) be non-transferable, and (iii) be subject to redemption at the option of the corporation either at the price at which the shares were acquired or at book value per share as of the last day of the fiscal quarter ended prior to the date of the call for redemption.

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Thus, under certain circumstances, the CSA Act may make it more difficult for an acquiring person to exercise control over the Company due to the limitations placed on that person’s ability to vote the shares so acquired and the right of the Company to acquire the subject shares. The foregoing discussion of the CSA Act is qualified in its entirety by the text of the CSA Act.

Anti-Takeover Provisions in the Restated Articles and Bylaws

The following discussion is a general summary of certain provisions of the restated articles of incorporation, and amended bylaws of the Company which may be deemed to have an “anti-takeover” effect.

Classified Board of Directors. On August 26, 2009, our Board of Directors adopted an amendment to the Company’s Bylaws which eliminated the Company’s classified board structure. Under the amendment to the Bylaws, directors elected prior to the 2010 annual meeting of the stockholders will continue to hold office until the expiration of the three-year terms for which they were elected. Each director who is elected or appointed at or after the 2010 annual meeting of stockholders will hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders. Paul J. Kosasa’s term as director will expire at the time of the 2012 annual meeting. The terms of all other directors, which are the newly constituted board as of the completion of the recapitalization, expire at the time of the 2011 annual meeting unless they are re-elected. Until our Board of Directors is fully declassified, the classified nature of our Board of Directors could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of the Company.

Advance Notice Requirement for Director Nominations. Our bylaws provide that shareholder nominations for the election of directors may not be brought before a meeting of shareholders unless the shareholder has given timely written notice in proper form of such nomination to the Secretary of the Company at the principal executive office. Such proposals or nominations may be made only by persons who are shareholders of record on the date on which such notice is given and on the record date for determination of shareholders entitled to vote at that meeting. To be timely, a shareholder’s notice shall be delivered to or mailed and received at the executive office of the corporation not less than 90 calendar days nor more than 120 calendar days prior to the first anniversary date of the annual meeting for the preceding year; provided, however, if and only if the annual meeting is not scheduled to be held within a period that commences 30 days before such anniversary date and ends 30 days after such anniversary date, the shareholder’s notice shall be given in the manner provided herein by the later of (i) the close of business on the date 90 days prior to the meeting date or (ii) the tenth day following the date the meeting is first publicly announced or disclosed, and (iii) in the case of a special meeting of shareholders called for the purpose of electing directors, not later than the close of business on the tenth day following the day on which the date of the special meeting and of the nominees proposed by the Board of Directors to be elected at such meeting is publicly announced or disclosed.

No person is eligible for election to the Board of Directors unless nominated in accordance with the foregoing procedures, and thus such procedures could make it more difficult for dissident shareholders to nominate and elect their candidates.

Filling of Vacancies. Vacancies on the Board of Directors caused by the death, resignation, disqualification or otherwise, of any director who was previously duly elected, may be filled by the remaining members of the Board, though less than a quorum, and each person so elected shall be a director until his or her successor is elected by the shareholders. Vacancies resulting from an increase in the number of directors may be filled only by members of the Board of Directors. As a result, new directors added to the Board of Directors to fill vacancies may not be up for shareholder election at the next annual meeting as a result of the classification of the Board. The overall effect of these provisions may be to prevent a person or entity from immediately acquiring Board control.

Supermajority Shareholder Vote to Call a Special Shareholders Meeting to Amend Bylaws. Subject to repeal or change at any regular meeting of the shareholders, or at any special meeting called for that purpose by the vote of the holders of eighty percent (80%) of the outstanding shares entitled to vote at such meeting, the power to alter, amend or repeal our bylaws or adopt new bylaws is vested in the Board of Directors. The supermajority vote required to call a special meeting of shareholders to amend the bylaws could have the effect of discouraging a tender offer or other takeover attempt where the ability to make fundamental changes through bylaw amendments adopted by the shareholders at a special meeting is an important element of the takeover strategy.

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Fair Price Provisions Involving Business Combinations. Our restated articles of incorporation contains a “fair price” provision that applies to certain business combination transactions involving any interested shareholder, which is (i) any person that beneficially owns more than 10% of our voting stock or (ii) any affiliate of the Company that within the past five years beneficially owned more than 10% of our voting stock. This provision requires the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our voting stock to approve specified transactions between an interested shareholder or its affiliate and us or our subsidiaries, including:

·                  any merger or consolidation;

·                  any sale, lease, license, exchange, pledge, transfer or other disposition of assets (in one transaction or a series of transactions) having a fair market value of $2 million or more;

·                  the issuance or transfer of any of our securities or any of our subsidiaries’ securities by us or any of our subsidiaries to an interested shareholder or its affiliates having a fair market value of $2 million or more;