off-the-wire

Israel's Mizrahi Tefahot bank Q4 net profit jumps

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
JERUSALEM, March 14 (Reuters) - Mizrahi Tefahot , Israel's third-largest bank, reported a 60% rise in fourth-quarter profit, boosted by a jump in financing income amid higher inflation and aggressive Bank of Israel interest rate hikes. The bank said on Tuesday it earned 1.09 billion shekels
($300 million) in the October-December period, up from 679 billion shekels a year earlier. Mizrahi said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 326.1 million shekels, or 30% of net profit.


It reported fourth quarter net interest income of 2.95 billion shekels, up from 1.96 billion a year earlier. The bank had a credit loss provision of 191 million shekels in the quarter, after taking income from the provision of 15 million a year earlier. To fight inflation, the Bank of Israel in April began to raise its benchmark interest rate, bringing it to 4.25% from 0.1% in April.


Mizrahi's Tier 1 ratio of capital to risk components, a key measure of financial strength, fell to 9.94% from 10.04% a year earlier. ($1 = 3.6392 shekels) (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch Editing by Steven Scheer)

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