Bank Massad

Bank Massad Ltd. is an Israeli commercial bank within the First International Bank of Israel group. It specializes in banking and financial services for teachers and education-system employees, while also serving households and small and medium-sized businesses. The bank is supervised as part of Israel’s banking system by the Bank of Israel.^[1]

Overview

Bank Massad is a relatively small Israeli bank with a distinct customer focus. Its public profile presents the bank as a provider of financial solutions and banking services for teaching and education workers, alongside services for private customers and small and medium-sized business customers from across the economy.[citation needed] The First International Bank of Israel describes Massad as a commercial bank that specializes in providing services to the teaching staff population in Israel.^[3]

The bank’s business model combines a sectoral orientation with the functions of a commercial bank. Its product set includes current-account banking, credit, mortgages, investment advisory services, foreign-trade and business-finance services, digital banking, telephone banking and self-service channels.[citation needed] This makes Bank Massad different from a narrow mutual-aid or credit society: it operates as a licensed commercial bank, while retaining a historical and commercial emphasis on Israel’s education workforce.

The bank’s head office is at 12 Abba Hillel Street in Ramat Gan, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.[citation needed] The Israeli government banking-corporation dataset lists Bank Massad Ltd. as a commercial bank, gives its bank code as 46, SWIFT code as MASBILITXXX, and address as 12 Abba Hillel Street, Ramat Gan 5250606.^[2] The Bank of Israel list of supervised banking corporations identifies Bank Massad Ltd. among Israel’s banks and gives its reporting symbol as 46001.^[1]

History

Bank Massad’s roots are in the organized teachers’ movement in Mandatory Palestine. According to the bank’s own history, in 1929 the Hebrew Teachers Association, later the Israel Teachers Union, decided to establish Massad as a mutual company for loans and savings for teachers in the Land of Israel.[citation needed] This origin explains the bank’s continuing association with education workers and with the teachers’ union.

The bank’s historical account places this development within the broader institutional history of Hebrew education in the country. It notes that a teachers’ assembly was held in Zikhron Ya’akov in 1903, chaired by Professor David Yellin and attended by teachers and kindergarten teachers, and that this meeting resolved to establish the Hebrew Teachers Association in the Land of Israel.[citation needed] The later creation of Massad in 1929 was therefore an institutional extension of the teachers’ movement into savings and credit.

In 1977, the earlier association-based structure was changed. The bank’s history states that, as the economy developed, the association lacked sufficient resources and capital to operate at full scope and to provide preferential loans. It therefore ended its independent activities and, together with Bank Hapoalim, established Bank Massad Ltd.; Bank Hapoalim purchased 51% of the company’s shares and 49% remained with the association.[citation needed] The bank says Bank Hapoalim provided additional capital to allow wider banking activity for members of the teachers’ union.[citation needed]

A further ownership change took place in 2008. Bank Massad states that in that year First International Bank of Israel acquired the Bank Hapoalim shares, and that the bank also received approval to be a stock-exchange member in that year.[citation needed] The First International Bank’s own history similarly records that it acquired 51% of Bank Massad’s issued and paid-up share capital in 2008.^[4]

The bank’s headquarters also moved over time. Its historical page says the management offices had for many years been at 80 Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, on the site of a building associated with the Eretz Israel Theatre that later became the Sderot cinema, while the new management offices are in the bourse district of Ramat Gan at 12 Abba Hillel Street.[citation needed]

Ownership and group relationship

Bank Massad is majority-owned by the First International Bank of Israel. The First International Bank’s March 31, 2026 financial statements state that it owns 51.0% of Bank Massad’s share capital and voting rights.^[3] Bank Massad’s own profile states that it is owned 51% by the First International Bank and 49% by the Israel Teachers Union through Massad Holdings.[citation needed]

This ownership structure gives Bank Massad a dual identity. On one side, it is part of a medium-sized Israeli banking group centered on the First International Bank. On the other side, a large minority stake is connected to the organized teachers’ sector through Massad Holdings. The First International Bank’s 2026 shelf prospectus identifies Massad Holdings Ltd., controlled by the Israel Teachers Union, as the holder of 49% in Bank Massad.^[5]

For the First International Bank group, Massad is treated as a principal investee company. In its financial statements for the first quarter of 2026, the First International Bank reported that its investment in Massad amounted to NIS 631 million as of March 31, 2026.^[3] The same report stated that Massad distributed dividends of NIS 120 million on September 25, 2025 and NIS 250 million on December 30, 2025, with the First International Bank’s shares of those dividends amounting to NIS 61 million and NIS 128 million respectively.^[3]

Activities and customers

Bank Massad’s core market is Israel’s teaching and education workforce. Its profile page describes it as a bank that has specialized for more than 80 years in financial solutions and banking services for teaching staff and the education system, while also serving private customers and small and medium-sized business customers.[citation needed] The First International Bank also characterizes Massad as specializing in services for Israel’s teaching staff population.^[3]

The bank provides retail and business banking services. Its profile lists credit and mortgages, investment-advisory services, business banking units in branches, credit solutions for business customers, foreign-trade services and financing suited to business activity.[citation needed] Bank Massad’s website also lists product areas such as bank-account opening, business banking, mortgages, loans, credit cards, bill payment, open banking APIs, securities trading, mutual funds, pension advice and portfolio-management-related services.[citation needed]

Digital delivery is also part of the bank’s service model. The bank says it offers direct and digital banking through an internet site, a mobile application and a telephone center, enabling customers to receive information and online services and to carry out a range of transactions without visiting a branch.[citation needed] It also describes self-service stations through which customers can obtain information and deposit checks and cash independently.[citation needed]

Although Massad is identified with education employees, it operates through a national branch network. The bank’s profile and history state that it has 21 branches and extensions across Israel.[citation needed][citation needed] The profile lists locations including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, Karmiel, Beersheba, Holon, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, Modi’in, Ramat Gan, Ashdod, Hadera, Shfar’am, Kfar Saba, Sakhnin, French Hill in Jerusalem, Kochav Yair, Umm al-Fahm and Acre.[citation needed]

Financial position

Publicly available financial data for Bank Massad appear in the reports of the First International Bank, because Massad is a principal investee of that group. As of March 31, 2026, Massad had total assets of NIS 12.361 billion, compared with NIS 12.360 billion at December 31, 2025.^[3] Its shareholders’ equity was NIS 1.236 billion at March 31, 2026, up from NIS 1.195 billion at the end of 2025.^[3]

For the first three months of 2026, Massad’s net earnings were NIS 46.1 million, compared with NIS 48.7 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.^[3] The First International Bank reported that its share in Massad’s operating results for the same period was NIS 23.5 million, compared with NIS 25.5 million in the corresponding period of the prior year.^[3]

Capital ratios in the same report indicated a high level of capitalization relative to Massad’s internal targets. The First International Bank disclosed that Massad’s annualized net return on equity for January–March 2026 was 15.4%, compared with 14.3% in the corresponding period of the previous year.^[3] It also reported that Massad’s comprehensive capital ratio to risk assets was 17.48% as of March 31, 2026, compared with 16.40% at the end of 2025, and that the Tier 1 equity capital ratio was 16.32%, compared with 15.32% at the end of 2025.^[3]

The same disclosure states that, in the framework of the ICAAP process for September 30, 2024 data, Massad’s board set minimum capital targets: a Tier 1 equity capital ratio of at least 10.5% and a comprehensive capital ratio of at least 12.65%.^[3] These figures are specific to that disclosure date and should not be read as current capital ratios unless updated by later reports.

Bank Massad’s own profile also refers to external ratings by Midroog. It lists a financial-strength rating of A1 with a stable outlook and long-term deposits at Aa2 with a stable outlook.[citation needed] The bank’s profile does not, in the cited page, provide the full rating report context, methodology or issue date, so the ratings should be interpreted in conjunction with Midroog’s own publications when used for analytical purposes.

Regulation and supervision

Bank Massad is a supervised banking corporation in Israel. The Bank of Israel lists it among banks supervised within the banking system and assigns it reporting symbol 46001.^[1] The government dataset of Israeli banking corporations categorizes Bank Massad as a commercial bank and records bank code 46.^[2]

As a bank, Massad is subject to the Israeli framework for banking supervision, licensing, capital adequacy, consumer protection, anti-money-laundering controls and payment-system participation. The immediate regulator for banking supervision is the Bank of Israel, while capital-market activity and exchange membership connect the bank to the broader Israeli financial-market infrastructure, including the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Bank Massad states that it received approval in 2008 to be a stock-exchange member.[citation needed]

The bank also operates customer-contact and complaints channels. The Bank of Israel’s consumer-enquiries page lists a contact number for Massad and notes that, before contacting the Bank of Israel through the online form, a customer must exhaust an investigation through the banking corporation’s ombudsman.^[6] This reflects the general consumer-complaint sequence in Israeli banking: first the bank’s own complaints function, and then the supervisory authority where relevant.

Role in Israeli banking

Bank Massad occupies a niche position in Israel’s banking system. It is not one of the two largest universal banks, such as Bank Hapoalim or Bank Leumi, and it is not itself the parent of a broad national banking group. Instead, it is a sectorally focused commercial bank within the First International Bank of Israel group.

The bank’s long association with teachers resembles a broader pattern in Israeli banking in which some institutions developed around defined communities or employment groups. Over time, however, Massad became a commercial bank offering a wider set of services to households and businesses, while retaining its historic education-sector specialization. This makes it relevant both as a banking institution and as an example of the evolution of mutual or sectoral finance into regulated commercial banking.

Massad’s connection to the Israel Teachers Union remains important for identity and governance, but the majority shareholding by the First International Bank ties it to a publicly reported banking group. For analysts of Israeli banking, the bank is therefore best understood through three overlapping lenses: a supervised commercial bank; a focused retail and SME institution; and a principal investee of the First International Bank group.