Hapoalim net profit up 14% in 2020

• Date: 11 March 2021
• Author: Globes correspondent
• Published date: 11 March 2021

Income from financing activities amounted to NIS 9.4 billion, down 3.4% from 2019. This was due to lower financial margins on deposits, mainly because of the fall in dollar and shekel interest rates and a fall in income from linked difference and a fall in consumer retail credit due to the Covid pandemic.

Expenditure due to credit losses amounted to NIS 1.94 billion last year, 0.64% of the credit to the public, compared with NIS 1.3 billion in 2019.

As of the end of 2020, deferred loans and mortgages amounted to NIS 42.5 billion but by the end of January 2021, this amount had shrunk to just NIS 11.2 billion.

Despite the Covid crisis, Hapoalim's credit portfolio continued to grow in 2020. Total credit to the public amounted to NIS 302 billion compared with NIS 293 billion at the end of 2019, up 3%. Credit for housing grew 10.5% to NIS 98.7 billion.

The amount of provisions for credit losses was 2% of credit to the public compared with 1.58% in 2019.

Fourth quarter net profit was NIS 915 million, compared with a NIS 629 million net loss in the fourth quarter of...