Bank of Jerusalem

Bank of Jerusalem Ltd. is an Israeli commercial bank that provides retail, mortgage, deposit, savings, business-credit, construction-finance and capital-market services. Founded in 1963 and operating as a commercial bank since 1998, it is a supervised banking corporation in Israel and a listed company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.^[1][2][3]

History and legal status

Bank of Jerusalem Ltd. was founded in 1963 as a public company under the name Bank of Jerusalem for Development and Mortgages Ltd.^[1] Its original name reflected a mortgage and development-finance orientation, a specialization that remained central to its profile after it became a broader banking institution. In 1992, the bank completed an initial public offering of shares, becoming a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.^[1] In 1996, the bank changed its name to Bank of Jerusalem Ltd., its current legal name.^[1]

The bank’s annual report states that it is a banking corporation holding a banking license under Israel’s Banking Law (Licensing), 5741-1981, and that it has operated as a commercial bank since 1998.^[1] This places it within the framework of Israeli banking regulation rather than solely mortgage-bank or finance-company activity. As a commercial bank, it accepts deposits, extends credit and provides banking services subject to the prudential and conduct requirements that apply to banking corporations in Israel.

The Bank of Israel’s list of supervised banking corporations identifies Bank of Jerusalem as a bank with reporting symbol 54001.^[2] The bank is therefore part of the formal Israeli banking system overseen by the Bank of Israel through its Banking Supervision Department. The Bank of Israel describes banking supervision as a public-interest function intended to safeguard the stability and fairness of the banking system, including depositor protection, proper conduct and fairness in banks’ relationships with customers.^[4]

Ownership and listing

Bank of Jerusalem is a publicly traded bank. Its annual report states that after its 1992 initial public offering, it became a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.^[1] The bank’s own profile page states that it is owned by Export Investment Corporation, a TASE-traded public company controlled by the Shoval family.^[3] The bank’s corporate disclosures refer readers to its corporate-governance reporting for further details about controlling shareholders.^[1]

The public listing means the bank publishes periodic financial statements and corporate reports. The bank’s financial-statement archive includes annual and quarterly reports, as well as XBRL and spreadsheet versions for several reporting periods.^[5] Its 2024 annual report was approved for publication by the board of directors on March 18, 2025, and covers Bank of Jerusalem Ltd. and its subsidiaries for the year ended December 31, 2024.^[1]

The bank’s status as a listed banking corporation places it at the intersection of banking regulation and securities-market disclosure. Its banking activities are subject to the Bank of Israel’s supervisory regime, while its securities and public-company reporting are part of the broader Israeli capital-market infrastructure that includes the Israel Securities Authority, the MAGNA disclosure system and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Business model and operating segments

Bank of Jerusalem describes its customer base as including households, Israeli residents and foreign residents.^[1] Its main areas of activity include mortgages, consumer credit, savings and deposits, financing of residential construction, business credit and capital-market activities.^[1] The bank’s own public profile similarly states that it focuses on mortgages, loans, long-term deposit accounts and savings solutions, residential construction financing and retail credit for small and medium-sized businesses.^[3]

The bank states that it specializes in providing supplementary banking solutions to customers of all banks, regardless of where the customer maintains a main checking account.^[1] This positioning differs from the universal-bank model of relying primarily on current-account relationships. Instead, Bank of Jerusalem has emphasized products that can be sold to customers who may maintain their main account elsewhere, such as deposits, mortgages, loans and securities-related services.

In its 2024 annual report, the bank describes five main supervised operating segments.^[1] The household segment serves private individuals other than customers classified as private-banking clients. Products in this segment include loans for the acquisition of residential apartments and commercial properties, general-purpose loans secured by residential apartments, consumer loans, checking accounts, deposits and savings, securities transactions, credit cards and prepaid cards.^[1]

The private-banking segment serves individuals with a financial-asset portfolio balance exceeding NIS 3 million.^[1] The business segment serves construction companies, contractors, real-estate companies, corporations, associations and small and medium-sized businesses.^[1] Within this segment, the bank provides business banking services and real-estate-sector financing, including accompaniment of residential construction projects under the closed-accompaniment method and financing for projects under National Outline Plan 38.^[1]

The bank also describes capital-market and financial-management activity in its annual report. Its public description and financial statements indicate that capital-market services form part of the bank’s business mix, while financial-management activity includes funding, liquidity and balance-sheet management.^[1][3][1] The bank also routinely sells mortgage portfolios to institutional entities as part of its business activity while continuing to service such portfolios according to the terms described in its report.^[1]

Branch network and distribution

Bank of Jerusalem’s headquarters offices are located in Airport City.^[1] As of the publication date of its 2024 annual report, the bank operated through 19 branches distributed throughout Israel.^[1] The bank’s retail division provides services through branches, hotlines and digital channels.^[1] In the household segment, customers receive services through branches, digital means and a customer-service center, including IVR services.^[1]

The bank’s distribution model therefore combines a relatively small branch network with remote and digital channels. This structure is consistent with a business model focused on specific products rather than a nationwide current-account franchise comparable in scale to Israel’s largest banking groups. Its branch presence nevertheless gives it physical distribution for mortgage, deposit, investment and customer-service needs.

Bank of Jerusalem’s household segment also includes prepaid-card activity. The annual report states that the bank issues prepaid cards under a MasterCard license for different business needs, using a Business2Business2Customer model.^[1] According to the report, this activity is focused mainly on prepaid cards for foreign residents and is marketed through distributors that have distribution agreements with the bank and provide first-line customer service.^[1]

Position in the Israeli banking system

The Israeli banking system is concentrated around five large banking groups: Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, Israel Discount Bank and First International Bank of Israel. The Bank of Israel’s 2023 banking-system annual survey stated that these five groups held about 99 percent of the banking system’s total assets.^[6] The same survey identified Jerusalem Bank and One Zero Digital Bank as independent banks outside the five large groups.^[6]

This context is important for understanding Bank of Jerusalem’s market role. It is not one of the dominant universal banking groups, but it is a licensed commercial bank with a recognized place in the supervised banking system. Its product emphasis—mortgages, deposits, construction finance, business credit and capital-market services—allows it to compete in selected markets while operating on a smaller scale than the five main groups.

The Bank of Israel’s formal list of supervised banks includes Bank of Jerusalem alongside the larger groups and several other banks, including One Zero Digital Bank, Bank Yahav, Bank Massad, Mercantile Discount Bank and Bank Esh Israel.^[2] This listing is a concise regulatory identifier: it confirms that Bank of Jerusalem is a supervised bank, not merely a non-bank credit provider or investment intermediary.

Financial profile

For 2024, Bank of Jerusalem reported total assets of NIS 23.315 billion, total liabilities of NIS 21.862 billion and equity of NIS 1.453 billion on a consolidated nominal historical basis for tax purposes.^[1] The bank reported net profit of NIS 154.7 million for 2024, compared with NIS 134.6 million for 2023 and NIS 163.9 million for 2022.^[1]

The bank’s condensed bank-only balance sheet for December 31, 2024 reported cash and deposits in banks of NIS 5.056 billion, securities of NIS 1.497 billion, gross credit to the public of NIS 14.403 billion and net credit to the public of NIS 14.304 billion after provisions for credit losses.^[1] On the liability side, the bank reported public deposits of NIS 20.933 billion, deposits from banks of NIS 47.8 million, and bonds and CoCo bonds of NIS 250.7 million.^[1]

The income statement shows the bank’s dependence on both interest income and non-interest income. In 2024, the bank reported interest income of NIS 1.320 billion, interest expenses of NIS 809.7 million and net interest income of NIS 510.5 million.^[1] Fees were NIS 202.8 million, and total non-interest income was NIS 258.5 million.^[1] Operating and other expenses totaled NIS 592.5 million, and the bank reported net profit of NIS 154.6 million on a bank-only basis.^[1]

The balance-sheet structure highlights the role of public deposits as a major funding source. Public deposits of NIS 20.933 billion represented most of reported liabilities at the end of 2024.^[1] The bank’s asset side was centered on credit to the public, cash and deposits in banks, securities and investments in investee companies.^[1]

Credit ratings and capital-market funding

Bank of Jerusalem’s 2024 annual report presents credit ratings from S&P Maalot and Midroog. As of December 31, 2024, S&P Maalot rated the bank’s senior debt—long-term deposits and bonds—at ilAA- with a negative outlook, while Midroog rated the same category Aa2.il with a stable outlook.^[1] The bank’s contingent convertible bonds, Series 17, were rated ilA- by S&P Maalot and A2.il(hyb) by Midroog.^[1]

The report states that S&P Maalot ratified the bank’s ilAA- rating on May 2, 2024 despite increased geopolitical risks, with the outlook remaining negative.^[1] It also states that Midroog left the bank’s internal financial-strength assessment at a1.il on June 27, 2024 and maintained the long-term deposits and senior-debt rating at Aa2.il with a stable outlook.^[1]

These ratings are relevant because the bank raises funding through deposits and, to a smaller extent, capital-market instruments such as bonds and contingent convertible securities. Ratings are not guarantees of performance or repayment; they are assessments by rating agencies of relative credit risk under their methodologies. For a bank, they also interact with market funding costs and investor perceptions of balance-sheet strength.

Regulation and supervision

Bank of Jerusalem is supervised as part of the Israeli banking system. The Bank of Israel states that it is responsible for supervising and regulating the banking system under Section 4(7) of the Bank of Israel Law.^[4] Its Banking Supervision Department’s stated vision is to promote the public interest by safeguarding the stability and fairness of the banking system through professional, advanced and transparent supervision.^[4]

For Bank of Jerusalem, this means compliance with prudential rules, reporting requirements, risk-management expectations and conduct standards that apply to Israeli banking corporations. The bank’s annual report notes that its financial statements were prepared in accordance with public reporting regulations issued by the Commissioner of Banks.^[1] This reflects the specialized accounting and disclosure framework that applies to Israeli banks.

The bank is also exposed to regulatory and macroeconomic risks. In its forward-looking-information discussion, the 2024 annual report lists potential factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations, including extraordinary economic events such as the Swords of Iron War and its consequences, developments in the security situation, changes in interest rates, exchange rates and inflation, security or political events, changes in regulation and competitor behavior.^[1]

Relationship to Israeli payments and markets

As a commercial bank, Bank of Jerusalem operates in the broader Israeli payments and financial-market environment. The Bank of Israel regulates important payment and settlement systems, while Israeli banking-sector infrastructure includes systems such as MASAV and Shva. Bank of Jerusalem’s services—checking accounts, deposits, credit, cards and securities transactions—depend on the functioning of these systems, though the bank’s public disclosures focus more on its customer products and operating segments than on payment-system infrastructure.

Its capital-market services and public listing connect it to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ecosystem. Its financial-statement archive and public reports provide information to investors, creditors, depositors and regulators.^[5] The bank’s securities-related services to customers are part of a wider Israeli savings and investment landscape that includes bank deposits, mutual funds, provident funds, study funds and exchange-traded products.

Significance

Bank of Jerusalem’s significance lies in its role as a smaller independent commercial bank in a highly concentrated banking system. The Bank of Israel’s 2023 annual survey emphasized that the five large banking groups hold nearly all banking-system assets, while Jerusalem Bank is one of the independent banks outside those groups.^[6] This makes it a relevant institution for competition, specialized banking products and alternative deposit and credit channels.

The bank is especially associated with mortgages, deposits, savings and real-estate-related finance. Its reported 2024 balance sheet shows a substantial credit book and a large public-deposit base relative to its total assets.^[1] Its business model of serving customers even when their main checking account is held elsewhere is a distinguishing feature in the Israeli banking landscape.^[1]

At the same time, Bank of Jerusalem remains much smaller than Israel’s five major banking groups. Its competitive role is therefore concentrated in selected products and niches rather than in system-wide universal banking dominance. Its public disclosures, regulatory supervision and exchange listing make it a visible but mid-sized participant in Israel’s banking and capital-market system.