Israel Discount Bank

History

Israel Discount Bank, formerly known as Eretz Yisrael Discount Bank or Palestine Discount Bank, was founded on 5 April 1935 by Leon Recanati, a new immigrant from Greece who had been the head of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. His partners were Moshe Carasso and Yosef Albo. The bank operated in a store at 39 Yehuda Halevi St. in Tel Aviv. It was founded with a focus on foreign trade and with a deliberate Sephardic orientation so as to fill what Recanati perceived as a Sephardic void in the banking industry. Discount was unique in that it was open to private customers, whereas most other banks in Palestine at the time catered to merchants and institutions.

Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Ottoman Bank, one of five large foreign banks active at the time, was merged into Discount Bank. Discount became Israel's second largest bank in 1952, with over 40 branches throughout the country. It retained that position until the merger of Bank Hapoalim with the credit and saving funds of the Histadrut in 1957. Discount opened its first commercial bank in the United States in 1962 in the form of Israel Discount Bank of New York, or IDB Bank. In 1965 Discount Bank was still described as a "bastion of the veteran Sephardic establishment."

In 1952, the name of the bank was changed to Israel Discount Bank.

Discount began establishing a presence in Florida in the late 1970s, at the time specializing in international banking. In 2002 it expanded its Florida-based operations to encompass domestic banking as well, after taking over part of the Hamilton Bank of Miami, which had been seized and closed by regulators.

Milestones

Major holdings

Major Holdings of the bank include Mercantile Discount Bank, Israel Discount Bank of New York, shares in First International Bank of Israel, the Israel Discount Mortgage Bank, and Israel Credit Cards–Cal.

Mercantile Discount Bank

Mercantile Discount Bank has its roots in the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, founded in 1864. Anglo-Egyptian operated four branches in Mandatory Palestine – in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and Gaza. In 1925 Anglo-Egyptian was merged, along with Colonial Bank and the National Bank of South Africa, into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas). A subsidiary, jointly and equally owned by Barclays and Israel Discount Bank, was established in 1971–1972 and named Barclays Discount Bank. Israel Discount acquired full ownership of Barclays Discount in 1993 and renamed it Mercantile Discount Bank.

Israel Discount Bank of New York

Israel Discount Bank established a subsidiary in the U.S. in 1949. The first U.S. branch was opened on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1962 in a ceremony attended by Eleanor Roosevelt and New York City Mayor Robert Wagner. Eleanor Roosevelt opened the first account in the bank. In 1967–1968 it acquired the Hias Immigrant Bank and changed its name to IDB Trust Company. It became the Israel Discount Bank of New York in 1979. IDBNY has historically been tied to Jewish communities in Latin America, with funds from Chile, Brazil, Peru and Mexico accounting for 58% of the bank's deposits. It was ranked the 14th largest bank in New York in 2011 and was one of the few banks that did not suffer losses during the subprime mortgage crisis.

Israel Credit Cards–Cal

Israel Credit Cards–Cal (ICC–Cal, Visa–Cal, or simply Cal) is a credit card company in Israel that issues Visa, MasterCard and Diners credit cards. It was established in 1978 with Bank Leumi controlling 65% of the company and Discount Bank holding 35%. In 1998 the Antitrust Authority ordered Leumi and Discount to dissolve their partnership in order to increase competition. Leumi subsequently sold its stake to Discount, which in turn sold 24% to businessman Eliezer Fishman, 20% to First International Bank of Israel, and 5% to Harel Insurance Investments. By mid-2007 Discount had regained a controlling interest of 71.8% in the company.

A Nielsen Report published in 2007 indicated that Cal ranked 82nd in credit card issuing in the world in 2005.

Management

The bank's president is Lilach Asher- Topilsky. Joseph Bachar is the chairman of the board of directors.

Herzlilienblum Museum

To receive a permit for building the 30-story Bank Discount Tower to house the bank headquarters on Herzl Street in Tel Aviv, Bank Discount undertook the historical restoration of the Schiff House, built in 1910. The building reopened as the Museum of Banking and Tel Aviv Nostalgia, featuring interactive exhibits and old movie clips.