One of Israel's largest banks. Financed the construction of housing projects and has branches in multiple illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights.
One of the largest banks in Israel.
Leumi Bank provides financing for the construction of settlement housing projects in occupied territory. The bank provided financial support for 78 housing units in six buildings in Har Homa that were constructed by Heftziba.
The bank also provides loans and financial services to settlement authorities. Together with Hapoalim Bank, it manages the funds of Clal finance and the Jerusalem equity portfolio (owned by the settlement of Efrat). The Alfei Manashe settlement opened accounts for education and development funds in Leumi Bank, the Ma'ale Adumim settlement signed an investment consultant agreement with the bank, and the Kiryat Arba settlement's property taxes are saved in Leumi Bank.
The bank finances the Jerusalem light rail project, which connects the settlement neighborhoods around Jerusalem with the city center.
Through its subsidiary Leumi Mortgage Bank (100%), the bank provides financing for settlement home buyers. For instance, a sign in the settlement of Tzofim says that special offers for mortgages by Leumi Mortgage Bank are available for private construction in the Tzofim View (Nofei Zufim) Project.
The bank also supplies mortgages for home buyers in the settlements of Ariel, Beitar Illit and Katzrin in the Golan Heights.
The bank benefits from access to the Palestinian economy as a captive market.
The bank has branches in the following West Bank settlements: Ma'ale Adumim, Oranit, Pisgat Ze'ev, and Kiryat Arba; in the settlement neighborhoods of Ramot and Gilo in East Jerusalem, and in Katzrin in the Golan Heights.
Leumi Mortgage Bank has a branch in the Ramat Eshkol settlement neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Click here to read a full report from Who Profits, and here for a recent update on the involvement of the Israeli banks in the financing of the occupation.
- In October 2017, the third largest pension fund in Denmark, Sampension, moved to exclude four companies from their portfolio due to their investments in the illegal Israeli settlment activities. The four companies were Israeli banks, Hapoalim and Leumi, and HeidelbergCement and Bezeq.
- On June 12, 2017, Swedish Bank SEB added Bank Leumi in its no-buy-list. The bank declared that it is removing from all its funds forty companies "that violate international standards for the environment, corruption, human rights and labor law." The bank had previously stopped investing in companies involved in nuclear programs and in coal production.
- On January 12, 2016, the United Methodist Church’s Pension Board, one of the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., placed five Israeli Banks on its divestment list, claiming that these companies “pose excessive human rights risks.” The five banks are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank.
- In May 2015 the Olgethorpe University Student Senate passed a resolution to divest from Bank Leumi “based on evidence of their active role in human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
- In February 2014, Luxembourg’s national pension fund excluded Bank Leumi from its list of investments because of its “association [with] financing illegal settlements in occupied territories.”
- Dutch pension fund PFZW divested from Bank Leumi in 2014, citing its “involvement in financing Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
- Nordea Bank engaged Bank Leumi in 2014, requesting “clarifications regarding their activities in the territories.”