Hapoalim, one of Israel's two largest lenders, said it earned a net 1.75 billion shekels ($487 million) in the quarter, compared with a profit of 934 million shekels a year earlier. Helped by aggressive Bank of Israel rate hikes to fight inflation, net interest income jumped to 3.9 billion shekels from 2.5 billion. Its provision for credit losses was 430 million shekels compared with 187 million shekels last year. Hapoalim said it would pay a dividend of 525 million shekels, or 30% of fourth quarter net profit, after resuming ongoing dividends in the second quarter. ($1 = 3.5906 shekels) (Reporting by Steven Scheer Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Messaging: steven.scheer.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: @StevenMScheer)) JERUSALEM, March 9 (Reuters) - Bank Hapoalim reported on Thursday a near doubling of net profit in the fourth
quarter, helped by a boost to financing income from a sharp rise
in interest rates.
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