Leumi Group

Within approximately a month, at the end of the pilot period, the bank will be able to commence providing pension consultations at additional branches.

Last night, Leumi Group's aiBank (Arab Israeli bank) obtained a pension consultation license from the Ministry of Finance, which enables it to provide pension advice to its customers.

On obtaining the license, it is the aiBank's intention to begin a pilot at the Um El Fahum Branch, within the next few days, during which, inter alia, it will test the best advice support system, distribution and collection interfaces and the conduct of the consultation process and of the involved entities in outside of the bank.

Already prior to obtaining the pension consultation license, the bank had organized itself and trained potential consultants to this purpose. The consultation system that the bank will be using was developed by the Leumi group for all its branches. Furthermore, the bank has absorbed expert consultants from the pension field, who will assist in providing customers with quality, professional and objective consultations.

On obtaining the license, aiBank CEO, Mr. Yitzhak Eyal, said that bank intends introducing an array of objective pension advice for all its customers. "The bank's entry into the pension consultation field is important good news in the Arabic sector, especially in the current timing, of uncertainty in the markets and concern of most of the customers regarding their pension savings. Surveys conducted have indicated a lack of information amongst the Arab public relating to pension savings and the various pension products. I'm convinced that the aiBank's entry into objective pension consultation provision will expand the quantity and quality of the information on the issue and assist customers to plan their financial futures intelligently. Consequently, they will be able to manage their savings more correctly and maintain their standard of living on retirement" Eyal sais.

fully owned by Bank Leumi, the aiBank operates 27 branches in the north of the country, servicing the public through 413 employees. In H1/08, the bank enjoyed net earnings of approx. NIS 47.7 million, an increase of 1.3% compared with the corresponding previous period. The bank's balance sheet exceeded NIS 4.5 billion with an annualized capital return of 28.5%.