Sami Peretz

The controlling shareholders of United Mizrahi Bank, the Wertheim-Ofer group, are considering merging the bank with its subsidiary Tefahot Mortgage Bank if they fail to sell Mizrahi.

The Bank of Israel is tightening restrictions on bank financing for corporate takeovers, Supervisor of Banks Yitzhak Tal announced yesterday.

Bank Hapoalim announced plans to fire 900 employees - 10 percent of its staff - in the coming weeks. Of the job losses, 700 are to go in Hapoalim's various branches, and 200 workers in management.

Israel's largest bank announced the dismissal of 900 employees in the most ambitious streamlining plan in the sector's history. The board of directors yesterday approved management's agreement with the bank's labor union to lay off 10 percent of its workforce, in the coming weeks.

First International Bank chair Shlomo Piotrkowsky once summed up his business philosophy in the following sentence: "When you grant credit, first know the man, then know the business, and finally know the deal."

Bank Leumi's management had only one reason to be happy yesterday with the fact that rival Bank Hapoalim managed to end the first nine months of the year with much higher profitability: One of Leumi's biggest borrowers is the Dankner family, among the controlling shareholders in Hapoalim.

The Finance Ministry called last week's issue of Bank Leumi warrants a success, but it became evident yesterday that only two foreign investors submitted bids in the tender and only one of those received an order.

The First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) and its controlling shareholders, the Safra family, have expressed willingness to buy the state's controlling share in Israel Discount Bank so that it can be merged with FIBI.

Excatly 10 years ago a serious crisis hit Israel's insurance sector: fierce competition was causing companies heavy losses, to the extent that their stability was no longer certain. It is this crisis that gave rise to the cartel that in the late 1990s got confessing senior officers convicted and ousted.

The board of Bank Hapoalim decided this week to merge the bank with its small subsidiary, the Mishkan mortgage bank. Mishkan's branches are already located within those of Bank Hapoalim, and in light of the pressing need to streamline, a merger is the natural step to take.

Antitrust Commissioner Dror Strum is checking whether agreements between insurance firms and the Shagrir roadside-assistance services company hinder competition and thus violate the Antitrust Law.

The board of directors of Bank Hapoalim decided yesterday to authorize the merger between the bank and its subsidiary, Mishkan Mortgage Bank, as part of restructuring measures planned for 2003.

The CEO of Italian insurance giant Generali, Giovanni Perissinotto, will arrive in Israel next week to hear the details of subsidiary Migdal Insurance's plans to acquire control of United Mizrahi Bank.

The banking industry breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when the court appointed a receiver for Gad Zeevi's 19.6 percent stake in Bezeq, but the banks still have a long way to go before they get their hands on the hundreds of millions of dollars they lent him.

Nochi Dankner and his family are negotiating the sale of their holdings in Bank Hapoalim to Arison Investments.

On June 2, 2001, the day after the terror attack at the Dolphinarium discotheque, the world's major television networks broadcast footage of angry Israelis burning tires and throwing rocks at the nearby Hassan Bek mosque.

For decades, the two large commercial banks, Hapoalim and Leumi, have been racing against each other for top spot in the Israeli banking sector.