{"id":1174,"date":"2019-08-14T17:57:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T17:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2019-08-14T17:57:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T17:57:14","slug":"bank-leumi-and-bank-discount-both-have-excellent-2nd-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/2019\/08\/14\/bank-leumi-and-bank-discount-both-have-excellent-2nd-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Bank Leumi and Bank Discount Both Have Excellent 2nd Quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-889\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4.png 610w, https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4-300x201.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank Leumi and Bank Discount, two of Israel&#8217;s leading banks published their financial results today.&nbsp;Both reported excellent results, and thanks to cost-cutting, both have become very profitable.&nbsp;After undergoing several self-inflicted wounds, including legal difficulties in the United States, Israel\u2019s banking sector as a whole has emerged stronger and more profitable than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bank Leumi Has Another Excellent Quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank Leumi reported net income of NIS 2.015 billion&nbsp;in the first half of 2019, with revenue up 23.4% in the first half of last year.&nbsp;&nbsp;Leumi\u2019s return on equity rose to 11.4% during the first half of the year, compared to a rate of 9.4% during the first half of 2018. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leumi\u2019s net income for the second quarter was NIS 923 million, up from NIS 903 million&nbsp;in the second quarter of 2018. However, Leumi\u2019s income last year included profits from the sale of its LeumiCard credit card division.&nbsp;Net profit from the sale of the card division second quarter&nbsp; last year showed profits of NIS 843 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bank continued to improve its efficiency, reporting an efficiency ratio of 53.1%, compared to 61.7% for the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credit loss expenses increased slightly to 0.19% during the first half of 2019, from 0.05% during the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank Leumi will distribute a dividend of 40% of its net profits. Shareholders&#8217; equity totaled NIS 35.8 billion, as of June 30, 2019, compared with NIS 34.7 billion as of June 30, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Net credit to the public totaled NIS 277.1 billion,&nbsp;as of&nbsp;June 30, 2019, compared with NIS 264.2 billion,&nbsp;as of June 30, 2018, (excluding Leumi Card). The increase is primarily attributed to mortgage, middle-market, and corporate loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deposits into Leumi by the public totaled NIS 373.2 billion,&nbsp;as at June 30, 2019, compared with NIS 361.2 billion at June 30, 2018, (excluding Leumi Card).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image-1.png 575w, https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image-1-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image-1-324x160.png 324w, https:\/\/digitone.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/image-1-533x261.png 533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bank Discount Reports Record Profits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bank Discount reported net profits of NIS 950 million in the first half of 2019, up 28% from the profits a year earlier.&nbsp;During the second quarter of 2019, Discount recorded profits of NIS 545 million, up 28.8% which represents a 12.8% return on equity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bank also reported that it&#8217;s lending to the public is up 10.1% from one year ago. Discount\u2019s mortgage lending is up 14.2%, and its income from interest is up 12.3%.&nbsp;Discount also recorded an increase of 4.6% in fee income.&nbsp;The bank\u2019s operating expenses during the first half of 2019 were 5.3% higher than a year ago. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the first half of 2019, Bank Discount\u2019s operating efficiency improved from 61.4%, compared to 65.6% one year earlier.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bank Leumi and Bank Discount, two of Israel&#8217;s leading banks published their financial results today.&nbsp;Both reported excellent results, and thanks to cost-cutting, both have become very profitable.&nbsp;After undergoing several self-inflicted wounds, including legal difficulties in the United States, Israel\u2019s banking sector as a whole has emerged stronger and more profitable than ever. Bank Leumi Has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,44],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-banking","8":"category-financials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitone.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}