Cal – Israel Credit Cards

Cal, formally Israel Credit Cards Ltd., is an Israeli payment-card company that issues cards, processes payments for merchants and provides nonbank credit. Founded in 1979, it operates under the Cal name and handles several card brands. Its ownership has been a focus of Israeli banking-competition policy because its controlling shareholder is Israel Discount Bank. ^[1][2][6] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/))

Origins and corporate position

Cal says it was founded in 1979 by Bank Leumi and Israel Discount Bank. Its company profile identifies Discount Bank as the holder of 72% and First International Bank of Israel as the holder of 28%. Those figures describe ownership of the company, not the shares of individual cards, transactions or merchants in Israel. Discount Bank also identifies Cal as the credit-card business within its group structure. ^[1][3] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/))

The distinction between a bank and its card-company subsidiary matters when describing Cal. A bank may maintain a customer’s deposit account and distribute a card, while a card company may issue the card, administer its transactions and, depending on the arrangement, provide credit. Cal is therefore not another name for Discount Bank. It is a separate company with cardholder and merchant activities of its own, although the two have an ownership relationship. Cal publishes financial reports for itself and for its Diners Club company; these should not be confused with Discount Bank’s consolidated reports. ^[1][3][11] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/))

Card issuance and payment brands

Cal describes its issuance activities as covering Visa, Mastercard and Diners Club cards. It describes its merchant-acquiring activities as covering Visa, Mastercard, Isracard and Diners Club. **Issuance** concerns the cardholder side of a payment: the card account, transactions and applicable billing or credit arrangements. **Merchant acquiring** concerns the business accepting the payment: arranging acceptance and handling the merchant’s payment transactions. A company can perform both functions without being the owner of the international card brands it handles. ^[1][2] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/))

Cal’s description of its services says that it markets Diners Club in Israel on an exclusive basis and that it began acquiring Isracard-branded transactions in 2012. Those are different relationships. Diners Club is among the card brands Cal issues and acquires, whereas the stated Isracard activity is acquiring transactions. Isracard is also the name of a separate Israeli card company; its appearance in Cal’s list of acquired brands does not mean the two companies are the same institution. ^[2] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/about-us/))

A card described in everyday language as a *credit card* does not necessarily operate as a revolving loan. The Bank of Israel distinguishes an immediate-debit card, which charges the customer’s bank account promptly, from a deferred-debit card, for which charges are generally collected once a month. Credit extended beyond the ordinary payment date is a further, distinct arrangement. This distinction is relevant to Cal because its card business includes payments as well as lending: the existence of a card transaction alone does not establish that its holder has taken an interest-bearing loan. ^[4][2] ([boi.org.il](https://www.boi.org.il/en/information-and-service-to-the-public/banking-customer-service-information/public-guides/debit-cards/))

Merchant services and credit

On the merchant side, Cal offers acquiring for payments made in physical businesses and online. Its business-service pages also describe merchant loans, advances against card receivables and digital tools for viewing expected settlements and managing transactions. Acquiring and lending serve different purposes. Acquiring enables a business to accept card payments and receive settlement; a loan or receivables advance supplies funds that must be repaid under its own terms. A merchant can therefore use Cal as a payment-service provider without necessarily borrowing from it. ^[9][10] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/business/))

For merchants, the acquiring agreement determines such matters as applicable charges and the timing of settlement. Cal publishes merchant-acquiring agreements and fee information in its legal disclosures. Its advertised prices or introductory terms for a particular route to enrollment should not be treated as a universal tariff: they may vary by card type, transaction type and contract. Cardholders likewise have separate agreements and fee schedules governing their cards and any associated borrowing. ^[12][13] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/business/more/legal-reports/))

Cal also describes lending to customers outside a bank loan arrangement. This means its financial activities cannot be measured solely by the number or value of purchases made with its cards. Card spending, outstanding credit, interest income, merchant-service income and the cost of funding lending are different measures. Cal’s financial-report archive contains annual and interim reports, as well as additional regulatory disclosures, for readers seeking period-specific figures rather than treating an undated company description as a financial statement. ^[2][11] ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/about-us/))

Supervision and consumer issues

Cal operates within Israel’s supervised banking and payments environment. The Bank of Israel’s Banking Supervision Department publishes material concerning credit-card companies and has identified Cal by its formal name, Cartisey Ashrai LeIsrael, in its record of financial sanctions. Supervision is relevant both to the company’s extension of credit and to its handling of payment-card customers. It does not mean that every transaction, charge or lending decision has been individually approved by the central bank. ^[7][8] ([boi.org.il](https://www.boi.org.il/en/economic-roles/supervision-and-regulation/financial-sanctions/))

The Bank of Israel’s consumer information notes that card ownership can involve monthly card fees and that the cost of credit, principally interest, is a separate item to consider. For an account holder, these are distinct from the price a merchant pays to accept cards. A transaction dispute, a cardholder charge and a merchant settlement question may consequently fall under different contractual terms, even when Cal is involved on more than one side of the transaction. Cal makes cardholder agreements and merchant legal materials available separately. ^[5][12][13] ([boi.org.il](https://www.boi.org.il/en/information-and-service-to-the-public/banking-customer-service-information/public-guides/worth-knowing-lowering-account-management-costs/))

In the wider payments system, a card transaction also depends on infrastructure beyond the issuer and merchant acquirer. Israel’s payment-system framework includes arrangements for processing card payments and for transferring funds between financial institutions. Those systems should be distinguished from Cal’s commercial relationship with a particular cardholder or merchant. Shva and MASAV are separate topics within that wider payments landscape, rather than alternative names for Cal. ^[14] ([boi.org.il](https://boi.org.il/en/economic-roles/payment-systems/payment-systems-in-israel/))

Competition policy and proposed separation

Cal’s bank ownership has made it part of a broader policy discussion about competition in Israeli credit. Other major bank-owned card companies were separated from their former banking groups, while Discount Bank initially retained Cal. In October 2022, the Bank of Israel published its position that Cal’s separation from Discount Bank should be completed and that the earlier exception for Discount Bank should be removed. The central bank said its examination produced findings both for and against separation; its stated position followed a weighing of those findings and of the effect of an uneven competitive framework. ^[6] ([boi.org.il](https://www.boi.org.il/en/communication-and-publications/press-releases/the-bank-of-israel-s-position-regarding-the-separation-of-the-cal-credit-card-company-from-bank-discount/))

The policy question concerned ownership, not whether Cal could continue issuing cards or serving merchants. Separation would change the controlling relationship between the card company and Discount Bank. The Bank of Israel has described measures intended to support the separation of card companies and their ability to compete after leaving bank ownership, including provisions relating to operating agreements, access to funding and potential purchasers. The existence of such a policy framework should not, however, be mistaken for evidence that any particular sale has closed. ^[6][15] ([boi.org.il](https://www.boi.org.il/en/communication-and-publications/press-releases/the-bank-of-israel-s-position-regarding-the-separation-of-the-cal-credit-card-company-from-bank-discount/))

Discount Bank’s investor-relations filings record its approval of a proposed sale of Cal to a Union–Harel group in September 2025. Its 2026 filings subsequently list an extension of the transaction’s closing deadline and a September 23, 2026 notice concerning the Competition Commissioner’s decision on the proposed purchase. Reporting on that decision described a requirement affecting Union Investments’ holding in the Super-Pharm chain. Subsequent reporting said the proposed purchasers would not proceed on those terms. Accordingly, the proposed Union–Harel purchase should **not** be described as a completed transfer of Cal’s ownership. Cal’s company profile continued to identify Discount Bank and First International Bank as its 72% and 28% shareholders, respectively. ^{[1][16][17][18]} ([investors.discountbank.co.il](https://investors.discountbank.co.il/regulatory-filings/regulatory-filings-2025/))

Interpreting Cal’s disclosures

Several measures can describe Cal but answer different questions. The number of cards describes issued payment instruments; transaction volume describes purchases or payments; merchant coverage describes businesses served; and a credit balance describes money owed. Revenue, profit and capital are financial-statement measures. None is interchangeable with ownership percentages. For a dated assessment of Cal’s results or exposures, its annual and quarterly reports provide a more appropriate starting point than a card-product page. For a dated assessment of its ownership, company statements and transaction filings must also be read in light of whether an announced sale was completed. ^{[1][11][16][17]} ([cal-online.co.il](https://www.cal-online.co.il/about/))