#Israel's Bank Hapoalim Q4 profit, credit growth rises | Reuters

Israel's Bank Hapoalim Q4 profit, credit growth rises | Reuters

Bank Hapoalim (POLI.TA) reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit, boosted by financing income, as the bank continued to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic with strong credit growth.

Hapoalim, one of Israel's two largest lenders, said on Tuesday it earned 934 million shekels ($283 million) in the October-December period, compared with a 915 million shekel profit a year earlier.

Net interest income rose to 2.46 billion shekels from 2.24 billion shekels a year earlier.

Hapoalim posted credit loss expenses of 187 million shekels after posting income from the provision for loan losses of 187 million a year earlier. Over the first nine months of 2021, it had recovered 1.41 billion shekels from credit loss provisions to unwind most of the provision made during the crisis.