Bank Leumi Le Israel (BLMIF) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining Bank Leumi's conference call for the first quarter of 2026. Joining me today are Mr. Hanan Friedman, President and CEO, and Ms. Chagit Argov, CFO and Head of the Finance Division. The presentation accompanying this call is available on the Bank's Investor Relations website. At the conclusion of the presentation, we will have a Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the conference call may include forward-looking statements, while actual results may be different. I would also refer you to the disclaimer on slide two, which applies equally to this call. I will now hand it over to Mr. Hanan Friedman. Hanan, go ahead. Good afternoon. Good morning for those who join us from the U.S., and thank you for joining Ben-Kloumi's conference call. on the financial results for the first quarter of 2026. We concluded the first quarter with strong results reflected in high profitability of 2.3 billion shekels, the highest in the Israeli banking system. We also achieved solid growth in both credit and deposits, outpacing the rest of the banking system. On the lending side, growth was primarily driven by the corporate segment while deposit growth was particularly strong among households. Both totally in line with our strategy as presented to you at the beginning of the year. Net income reflected a return on equity of 13.6%. Earnings were impacted by the special tax imposed on the Israeli banks earlier this year. Excluding these tax, ROE would have been 15.1%. I remind you that the main impact of the special tax will be in 2026. The total amount for the industry is 3 billion shekels this year. When next year, it is expected to be negligible amounting to 125 million shekels, which means about 30 million shekels for Bank...