The Industrial Development Bank of Israel Ltd. was one of three banks established by the Government of Israel in the 1950s in order to provide funding resources to specific industries (Bank Ha’haklaut was the first one, and the Maritime bank – the last). As opposed to the other two, in this bank – founded in 1955 – Israel’s three largest commercial banks were shareholders in this bank: Bank Leumi, the Bank Hapoalim and Discount Bank.
In August 2002, the bank was nationalized, after running into liquidity problems. From 2003, the bank no longer engaged in new activities and focused on collecting loan repayments and returning clients’ deposits. In July 2008, the bank’s license expired.
In November 2009, the bank was acquired for NIS 572 million by a private investor. The bank’s assets at that time included cash, a credit portfolio with debts, some defined as doubtful debts, as well as accumulated losses for tax purposes. Later on, the investor sold the company to Menorah-Mivtachim Holdings.
(From Barlev collection of Securities Certificates)
