Particularly high profits for banks in the second quarter of the year:
Bank Hapoalim concludes the quarter with a net profit of NIS 1.42 billion and a return on equity of 14.5%.
This is compared to only NIS 133 million in the corresponding period last year, which was the peak of the corona plague.
Net income in the first half of the year was NIS 2.7 billion, with a return on equity of 14.1%.
The Bank increased its credit portfolio in the second quarter by 5.8%, while growing in all areas of activity.
Along with the growth in business activity, the profit was also affected by an improvement in the economic indicators, which led to a further reduction in the balance of the provision for credit losses due to the corona events.
Recognition of income in the credit losses item amounted to NIS 647 million in the quarter.
Bank Hapoalim has significant capital surpluses with a Tier 1 equity ratio of 11.61%.
He recently announced a dividend of NIS 617 million.
The efficiency ratio (operating expenses from total revenues) was 56% in the second quarter, compared with 57.9% in the corresponding quarter last year.
Fees amounted to NIS 802 million in the second quarter, compared with NIS 746 million in the corresponding quarter, which was characterized by corona restrictions and an increase of 7.5%, mainly due to an increase in fees from credit cards and fees from financing businesses.
Discount enjoyed a profit of NIS 860 million, compared with NIS 174 million in the corresponding quarter last year - with the outbreak of the corona epidemic in Israel.
The return on equity was 18.3% - compared to only 3.4% in the corresponding period last year.
Total credit increased in the second quarter of the year by 2.9%.
Most of Discount's growth is in the areas of strategic focus: housing credit (mortgages) rose in the second quarter of the year by 6.3%, and credit to medium-sized businesses increased by 7.9%.
Discount branch, Dudu Greenspan
The Bank's retirement plan led to a 8.4% decrease in salary expenses in the second quarter of the year, compared with the corresponding quarter last year (excluding expenses for grants).
In the future, the Bank will return a dividend at a rate of 20% of current profits, starting in the quarter in which the restrictions on the distribution of dividends by the Bank of Israel will be removed.
Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank enjoys the highest return on equity in the banking system (21.3%), thanks in part to the merger with Union Bank.
The net profit was close to one billion shekels (988 million).
In Mizrahi-Tefahot, dividends will be distributed at a rate of 30% of the bank's profits - NIS 483 million.
Coming soon: Click reform
It should be noted that starting this September, a "click-through" reform will be implemented, which will facilitate the transition between banks.
The solution will allow bank customers to transfer their bank account to another bank, digitally and in just seven days.
The system was supposed to take effect last March, but the law allows for two half-year delays each - and therefore the next date is September 2021.
If it is decided that the systems are not yet ready for reform, the reform will be postponed to March 2022 - the deadline for its entry into force.
Today, the process of transferring an account is considered particularly complex, and only 2.5% of customers go through a bank every year.
As of September, customers who want to move to a new bank will only need to approve a transfer order, which will result in the transfer of all their banking activities, including current accounts, credit cards, foreign exchange, securities and the like.
The responsibility for transferring the new account will be placed on the new bank, and the abandoned bank will be required to close the account.
Meanwhile, the Committee for the Examination of Competition in the Credit Market released its third report yesterday, which includes an update on the changes that took place in the period following the publication of the previous report.
The report indicates that since the beginning of the reform there has been significant progress in reducing barriers to competition, which is a necessary condition for increasing competition.
The quantitative analysis shows that the trend of a decrease in the concentration in the consumer credit market continued, but on the other hand, there was a slowdown in the rate of increase in the rate of consumer credit out of the total credit in the economy.