Press Releases
The Banker Names Leumi Bank of the Year in Israel in 2016
December 13, 2016
The prestigious international financial magazine, “The Banker” from the Financial Times Group, has named Leumi as “Bank of the Year in Israel for 2016".
This is the sixth time in the past decade Leumi has won this distinguished title. Leumi was selected by a professional panel of judges who examined the Bank's financial results, business achievements, investment in technology and the Bank's overall strategy.
The magazine praised Leumi, led by CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, for embracing the digital innovation revolution like few other banks anywhere in the world. Leumi is to launch its fully-mobile bank, PEPPER, in early 2017.
"Last year we began building PEPPER from scratch, on a separate, completely new technological platform," said Russak-Aminoach following the announcement. "PEPPER will be a fully mobile bank, branch-free, with no management fees. It is a personalized app with an innovative user interface. For me, PEPPER epitomizes the start-up nation's culture, capabilities and brilliance".
The magazine also mentioned several creative steps implemented by Russak-Aminoach in the past year, some of which are pioneering in the Israeli banking industry, which have dramatically improved the Bank's capital adequacy. Among these are the conversion of pension and jubilee rights of employees into shares; purchasing an insurance policy for guarantees issued by the Bank; and the issuing of contingent convertible bonds (CoCo bonds).