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Lately, our land has been blessed with dozens of banks – both banks and ‘banks’… and there seems to be no shortage of names for banks in our land. The capital city itself gave beautiful names to some good and respectful banks – ‘Metropolin’ and ‘Jerusalem’, as well as ‘Zion’ and ‘Moriah’. And, of course, more should be gleaned from this treasure. I’d suggest names such as ‘Yebusi Bank’, ‘Adonitzedek Bank’, ‘King David’s Bank’, etc. We even have Shefa Bank [‘abundance’ in Hebrew] of banks (maybe to show you there is an abundance of banks).” This piece, authored by journalist and public figure Avraham Binyamin Rivlin in the Doar Hayom newspaper, mocks the large number of banks, earnestly wondering who is to guarantee that depositors will not lose their money.
Shefa Bank – one of Rivlin’s targets of criticism – was established one year earlier with lmost no capital: PP 200. The aim of its founders – most of whom were artisans and small industry business owners – was not only to provide banking services or obtain credit with convenient terms, but to expand their target markets. In order to attract prospective buyers for its shares, the bank promised them credit ten times greater than the value of their shares. In July 1933, the bank published a modest ad, in which some of its shareholders called others to join their ranks. The aim: “Give us a hand and we shall concentrate imports in the Land of Israel.”
The names of the signatories and their occupations reflect the character of the bank: G. Lifschitz, furniture maker; Levkowitz and Crystal, paint makers; I. G. Ivansky, ink makers; I. Abstado, garment makers; Ma’arav Printing House; and Avraham Bilinky, mosaic maker.
In 1935, the bank attempted to expand its activity and its “culture department” informed that the bank was willing to provide PP 50 worth of credit for a period of three years, at a 7% interest rate to each author of a Hebrew book printed in a printing house owned by one of the shareholders. But even this initiative did not help the bank overcome the difficulties of that period, and Shefa Bank became one of the dozens of banks which collapsed towards the end of the decade.
(From Barlev collection of Securities Certificates)