American Savings Bank wants a bigger slice of Hawai'i's mortgage lending business, and is reorganizing its home loan operations under the new leadership of a local industry veteran.

The Honolulu-based bank named Jon Whittington, an executive formerly with Countrywide Home Loans and Central Pacific HomeLoans in Hawai'i, as president of its new American Savings Home Loans division.

Tim Schools, president of American Savings Bank, said the move is intended to make the bank more competitive in an area where it has lagged several rivals.

"We have not really been a formidable player," he said.

According to data compiled by Title Guaranty of Hawaii Inc., American Savings over the past five years has ranked just outside the top five mortgage loan originators by dollar volume, fluctuating between sixth and eighth.

This year through August, American Savings ranked seventh, with $607 million in mortgage originations, representing 4 percent of the market.

By comparison, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc. in the same period originated more than twice as much loan volume, $1.4 billion, representing 9.5 percent of the market.

Others doing more business than American Savings, in order, are Central Pacific HomeLoans, First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawaii, Chase Bank USA N.A. and Bank of America N.A.

Central Pacific HomeLoans was created in 2005 as a subsidiary of Central Pacific Bank, and involved the acquisition of Hawaii HomeLoans Inc., which helped that bank significantly boost its loan volume.

At American Savings, which is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., the new mortgage division will concentrate on increasing its market share by processing loans more efficiently and increasing its staff of loan originators working with real estate agents, Schools said.

As part of the restructuring, mortgage lending operations previously based in different divisions within the bank — such as loan processing and loan origination — are being consolidated into the new division headed by Whittington.

Whittington, a certified mortgage banker, led the growth of Countrywide's Hawai'i operation from a three-person branch in 1997 to become the state's largest residential lender. Whittington departed Countrywide early last year as its troubles in the mortgage industry meltdown led to an acquisition by Bank of America. Most recently, he was retail division manager and executive vice president at Central Pacific HomeLoans.

American Savings also has hired Allison Yasui as senior vice president of operations for the division to direct the underwriting, processing, closing, funding and shipping of loans.

Schools said the reorganization was prompted when Marlene Lum, the bank's mortgage business chief, announced three weeks ago that she'll retire after more than 30 years with the bank.