Mizrahi Tefahot Bank posted a net profit of NIS 845 million for the third quarter of this year, which compares with NIS 387 million in the third quarter of 2020, representing growth of 118.3%. For the first nine months of 2021, the bank posted a record profit of NIS 2.5 billion, which compares with NIS 1.1 billion in the corresponding period of last year and NIS 1.6 billion for 2020 as a whole.
Following the announcements by the Supervisor of Banks in July and September this year on dividend distributions from 2020 and 2021 profits, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank's board of directors has declared a dividend of NIS 752.7 million, amounting to 30% of the profits for the first nine months of 2021. This is in addition to a dividend of NIS 483 million that the bank distributed in August, representing 30% of the profits in 2020. "The return to dividend distributions is good news for the shareholders, and the bank intends to continue to act in accordance with its dividend policy, to the extent that this is consistent with the law and with the guidelines of the Supervisor of Banks," Mizrahi Tefahot CEO Moshe Lari said on the release of the bank's financials.
Mizrahi Tefahot's results for the first nine months of the year reflect continued growth in the bank's regular business together with a positive contribution from the acquisition of Union Bank of Israel, against a background of positive macro-economic figures and the fading of the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The lively activity in the residential real estate sector and the mortgage market in the first half of this year continued in the third quarter, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, the biggest bank in Israel for mortgages, benefitted from the trend. In the first nine months of 2021, the bank awarded new mortgage loans amounting to NIS 28 billion, versus NIS 19.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2021, representing an increase of 43.8%. At the end of the third quarter, the bank's mortgage portfolio totaled NIS 169.9 billion, up 10.7% from the end of the third quarter of 2020.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 15, 2021.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2021.