Who is First Hawaiian Bank
Financial Services Rooted in Tradition
First Hawaiian Bank has a long-standing commitment to deliver personalized financial solutions with a comprehensive suite of services, including deposits, lending, payments, and advisory support.
Operating in an increasingly complex fraud environment, First Hawaiian Bank combines people, culture, and technology to enhance customer experience and operational performance. By modernizing its dispute and fraud processes, the bank continues to evolve its capabilities, improving efficiency, reducing risk, and serving its accountholders.
Solving Long-Term Issues in a Legacy System
First Hawaiian Bank’s fraud and dispute processes were highly manual, creating inefficiencies, friction, and increased risk. Investigators managed cases end-to-end across multiple systems, often duplicating efforts by entering claims separately into core and chargeback workflows.
These inefficiencies led to longer resolution times, impacting accountholder satisfaction and limiting favorable outcomes. Without streamlined processes or real-time visibility, the team faced challenges scaling operations and adapting to growing demand.
To address this, First Hawaiian Bank sought a modern solution to streamline workflows, integrate seamlessly with existing systems, and strengthen compliance—while partnering with a provider to support ongoing operational transformation.
“
Our dispute process was 100% manual, including a duplicate process of repeating the claim intake once in our core system and a second time for the chargeback process.
Barbara Valona
VP & Bank Card Center Manager
Achieving Optimization Through Transformation
Quavo’s QFD platform provided First Hawaiian Bank with a comprehensive, end-to-end dispute management solution, unifying claim intake, processing, and resolution within a single system. By consolidating workflows and introducing intuitive automation, the bank reduced operational complexity while improving efficiency and consistency across its dispute operations.
As automation capabilities expanded, First Hawaiian Bank significantly reduced the time agents spent handling each claim, alleviating pressure on the team and improving overall productivity and morale. By automating repetitive tasks and leveraging built-in tools and reporting, the bank empowered its staff to focus on higher-value investigative work. This shift not only enhanced operational performance but also created a more sustainable, scalable dispute management model aligned with the bank’s long-term growth and customer experience goals.
“Integrating QFD as our dispute management system at First Hawaiian Bank has been a game changer.”
Measurable Success Across Multiple Dimensions
With QFD in place, First Hawaiian Bank transformed its dispute operations by significantly increasing efficiency without adding operational strain. Automation now supports 90% of dispute tasks, reducing manual eff ort and enabling the team to handle higher volumes with greater consistency.
The platform also delivered enhanced visibility and control. Centralized workflows and integrated reporting provided greater insight into claim volumes, performance metrics, and operational trends, enabling more informed decision-making. Automated workflows, including correspondence, accounting adjustments, and network integrations, reduced friction and ensured faster, more consistent case handling. Financial outcomes improved as well. First Hawaiian Bank now recovers 82% of disputed dollars from chargebacks, avoiding losses on upwards of $5M annually.
Strategic Impact and Future Outlook
With QFD, First Hawaiian Bank saw meaningful improvements in operational performance. Automation handles 90% of dispute tasks, significantly reducing manual effort and streamlining case handling. These efficiencies helped accelerate resolution timelines, with provisional credit issued within just three days. 40% straight-through processing for cases accelerates key workflows, including claim intake, correspondence, accounting adjustments, and network integrations.
“
The value of Quavo is not just in their system; the value is in the partnership and collaborating with their team to build an empowered and highly efficient Disputes Department.
Barbara Valona
VP & Bank Card Center Manager
Results
- Increased Efficiency in Fraud and Dispute Claims: Implementing Quavo’s QFD software enabled First Hawaiian Bank to significantly reduce the manual effort involved in fraud and dispute claims. Automation of key processes minimized the time agents needed to handle each claim, greatly improving operational efficiency.
- Improved Employee Morale and Work/Life Balance: The automation provided by Quavo's QFD software not only streamlined workflows but also reduced the stress on employees. Barbara Valona, VP & Bank Card Center Manager, noted that the new system dramatically alleviated pressure on the team.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Faster Resolutions: By automating and optimizing the dispute resolution process, First Hawaiian Bank improved the speed and accuracy of claim resolutions, leading to higher customer satisfaction. The integrated system also increased the percentage of cases resolved in the Bank’s favor, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new solution.