Leumi Card

Leumi Card was an Israeli credit-card and payments company founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Bank Leumi. It issued and acquired payment cards, provided merchant services, and later offered credit products. The company was separated from Bank Leumi under competition reforms, sold in 2019, and rebranded as Max It Finance Ltd.^[1][2]

Overview

Leumi Card was one of the principal institutions in Israel’s credit-card market before and after its separation from the banking group that created it. Its business model combined card issuing, transaction acquiring, processing services, and consumer and business credit. After its sale by Bank Leumi and the Azrieli Group to Warburg Pincus, the company was renamed Max, and the legal entity became known as Max It Finance Ltd.^[2][3]

The company’s significance in Israeli finance derives from three related roles. First, it was a major bank-affiliated card company during the period in which Israel’s largest banks controlled much of the card market. Second, it became a central case in the implementation of Israel’s reforms intended to increase competition in banking and household credit. Third, after its rebranding as Max, it continued to operate as a supervised merchant acquirer and credit-card company, becoming part of Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. in 2023.^[4][5]

Although the Leumi Card name is no longer the company’s main commercial identity, it remains important historically because it identifies the predecessor of Max and the credit-card subsidiary that Bank Leumi was required to divest. In contemporary regulatory lists, the relevant supervised entity appears as Max It Finance Ltd., not as Leumi Card.^[1]

Establishment and connection with Bank Leumi

Leumi Card was established in 2000 as a subsidiary of Bank Leumi. The business was formed during a period in which Israeli banks were closely linked to credit-card issuance and acquiring. According to Max’s public company profile, Leumi Card was created under the Leumi Card name and later became Max following the 2019 sale by Bank Leumi.^[2]

Before the separation, Bank Leumi was the central banking partner and controlling shareholder associated with Leumi Card. Warburg Pincus stated when the acquisition closed that Leumi Card had been owned 80% by Bank Leumi and 20% by the Azrieli Group before the sale.^[3] This ownership structure placed Leumi Card within the broader Leumi financial group, alongside banking and related financial services.

Leumi Card’s original position as a bank-owned credit-card company reflected a common Israeli market structure. Israel’s largest banking groups historically maintained close ties to the country’s principal card companies. In Leumi Card’s case, this meant that card issuance and merchant acquiring activity were connected to one of Israel’s largest banks, while the card company developed its own operational infrastructure and brand.

Business activities

Leumi Card’s core activities were in payment cards and related credit services. The company issued Visa and Mastercard-branded cards, provided acquiring services for merchants, and supplied processing and payment solutions. Max’s public profile describes the company as specializing in card issuing, acquiring, processing, payment solutions, and credit solutions.^[2]

Card issuing is the activity of providing payment cards to consumers or businesses and managing the customer relationship connected with the card. Merchant acquiring is the activity of enabling merchants to accept card payments and receive settlement for card transactions. In Israel, these activities are regulated parts of the payments and credit ecosystem. The Bank of Israel lists Max It Finance Ltd. among supervised merchant acquirers, together with other Israeli card and acquiring institutions.^[1]

As Leumi Card and later Max, the company also expanded beyond a narrow card-processing role into credit products. The company has described its services as including loans, credit solutions, and flexible payment options.^[2] This placed it in the wider market for non-bank or bank-adjacent consumer credit, a market that became a focus of Israeli competition policy after the separation of the major card companies from their parent banks.

The company also served merchants. Acquiring relationships with merchants are important because they determine how businesses connect to card networks, terminals, settlement systems, and payment-acceptance services. In a concentrated banking system, independent acquirers can be relevant to competition because they may provide merchants and consumers with alternatives to bank-controlled channels.

Separation from Bank Leumi

The separation of Leumi Card from Bank Leumi was part of a wider Israeli policy initiative to increase competition in banking and financial services. The Bank of Israel said that the agreement between Bank Leumi and Warburg Pincus was signed in July 2018 as part of the implementation of the Increasing Competition Law, which required the two credit-card companies owned by the large banks—Leumi Card and Isracard—to be separated from their parent banks.^[4]

The regulatory objective was to create independent financial entities that could increase competition in financial services. The separation was associated with the recommendations and legislation commonly linked to the Strum reforms, which aimed to reduce the market power of the largest banks in household credit and payments. Leumi Card was therefore not simply sold as a private corporate transaction; it was sold in a regulatory context intended to change the structure of Israeli consumer finance.^[4][6]

In February 2019, the Governor of the Bank of Israel granted Warburg Pincus a permit to control Leumi Card. The Bank of Israel said its review considered the fund’s credibility, financial strength, financing of the purchase, and planned business model for the company.^[4] This control permit was a necessary stage because acquirers and banking-related payment institutions are subject to supervisory review.

The transaction closed later in February 2019. Warburg Pincus announced on February 25, 2019 that it had completed the purchase of Leumi Card from Bank Leumi and the Azrieli Group, and that Leumi Card would become “max.”^[3] The rebranding marked the end of Leumi Card as the main public-facing name of the business.

Rebranding as Max

After the sale, Leumi Card was rebranded as Max. The rebranding separated the company’s commercial identity from the Leumi banking group. This mattered both symbolically and operationally: an independent card company competing in credit and payments could no longer rely on the same brand association with Bank Leumi.

The company’s current public identity is Max, and the regulated legal name is Max It Finance Ltd. The Bank of Israel’s list of supervised banking corporations and merchant acquirers includes Max It Finance Ltd. among merchant acquirers, reflecting the company’s post-Leumi regulatory status.^[1]

Max has continued to present itself as a financial company providing card, payment, and credit services. Its public profile states that it had issued about 3.1 million Visa and Mastercard-branded cards and provided acquiring services for tens of thousands of merchants.^[2] These figures are company-presented and should be read as descriptive of scale rather than as a current audited market-share measure.

Acquisition by Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings

Ownership changed again in 2023. The Bank of Israel announced on February 23, 2023 that the Governor and the Supervisor of Banks had granted Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd. a control permit for Max It Finance Ltd. after the Banking Supervision Department completed its examination process and after approval by the Competition Authority.^[5]

The Bank of Israel stated that Clal had entered into an agreement on August 12, 2022 with Warburg Pincus, which had controlled Max since 2019 after purchasing it from Bank Leumi.^[5] Clal’s later financial reporting stated that on March 27, 2023 it completed the acquisition of the entire issued and paid-up share capital of CIMax Holdings Ltd., the holding company that held Max It Finance Ltd. and related companies.^[7]

Following the acquisition, Max became part of a broader insurance and financial-services group rather than a bank-owned group or a private-equity-owned group. Clal’s 2024 reporting described Max It Finance Ltd. as 100% held within the group and identified Max as one of the three main companies operating in Israel’s credit-card industry, alongside Israel Credit Cards Ltd. and Isracard Group Ltd.^[8]

Regulation and supervision

Max It Finance Ltd., the successor to Leumi Card, is supervised by the Banking Supervision Department of the Bank of Israel. The Bank of Israel explicitly stated in its 2023 approval of Clal’s control permit that Max would continue to be supervised by the Banking Supervision Department to ensure its stability and to maintain fair treatment of clients, similar to the supervision of other banks and acquirers in Israel.^[5]

The Bank of Israel’s public list of supervised entities places Max It Finance Ltd. in the merchant-acquirer category. The same list includes other credit-card and acquiring entities such as Cal, Isracard, Premium Express, Diners Club Israel, CardCom, and Tranzila.^[1] This indicates that Max is treated within the supervisory perimeter for payment acquiring rather than as a conventional deposit-taking commercial bank.

Payment activity in Israel is also connected to broader oversight of payment systems. The Bank of Israel describes payment-systems oversight as part of maintaining monetary and financial stability, and notes the involvement of several Israeli authorities, including the Banking Supervision Department, the Competition Authority, the Capital Market Authority, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and the Israel National Cyber Directorate.^[9] For a company such as Max, this environment means that card and acquiring services operate within a framework of prudential, conduct, competition, and operational-resilience concerns.

The company’s regulatory status is distinct from that of Bank Leumi. Bank Leumi remains a commercial bank listed separately among supervised banks, whereas Max is listed as a supervised merchant acquirer.^[1] This distinction is central to understanding the result of the separation: Leumi Card did not become another bank; it became an independent card and payments company, later owned by non-bank financial groups.

Role in Israel’s card market

Leumi Card formed part of a three-company structure that has characterized much of Israel’s credit-card market: Leumi Card/Max, Isracard, and Cal. Clal’s 2024 annual report described the credit-card industry in Israel as having three main companies: Max, Israel Credit Cards Ltd. (Cal, including Diners), and Isracard Group Ltd. (including Premium Express/American Express).^[8]

The separation of Leumi Card and Isracard from their parent banks was intended to affect this market structure. In principle, independent card companies could compete with banks in consumer credit, offer merchants acquiring alternatives, and develop payment services without being controlled by the largest banks. In practice, the degree of competition depends on regulation, funding costs, customer acquisition, merchant relationships, technology, and the conduct of banks and card companies.

Leumi Card’s history is therefore closely connected to Israel’s broader effort to reduce concentration in retail finance. The company’s divestiture from Bank Leumi was one of the most visible structural changes under the Increasing Competition Law. Its later acquisition by Clal also illustrates another feature of the Israeli financial system: large non-bank financial groups, including insurance groups, may own important credit and payments businesses subject to supervisory approval.^[5][8]

Relationship to Bank Leumi after separation

After the 2019 sale and rebranding, Leumi Card ceased to be a Bank Leumi subsidiary. The historical name can therefore be misleading in later contexts. References to “Leumi Card” usually refer either to the company before its 2019 sale or to the predecessor of Max It Finance Ltd. Contemporary references to the operating company generally use Max or Max It Finance.

The separation did not eliminate all practical links between banks and credit-card use in Israel. Banks may still distribute cards, maintain customer-account relationships, and interact with card companies through payment and settlement systems. However, control of the former Leumi Card business passed first to Warburg Pincus and later to Clal, meaning that the company’s ownership and governance were no longer part of the Leumi banking group.^[3][5]

Significance

Leumi Card is significant as a case study in structural reform of a concentrated financial system. It shows how a bank-owned payments subsidiary can become a separate financial institution through legislation, supervisory approval, and a sale to an outside owner. The company’s transition from Leumi Card to Max also reflects the increasing importance of credit-card companies as providers of consumer credit, merchant acquiring, and digital payment services in Israel.

For Israeli financial history, the name Leumi Card marks the pre-reform period of bank-affiliated card ownership. For current market analysis, the relevant institution is Max It Finance Ltd., a supervised merchant acquirer and credit-card company owned within the Clal group. The entity’s evolution links several important Israeli finance themes: banking concentration, payment-system regulation, non-bank credit, private-equity ownership, insurance-group ownership, and competition policy.