The Bank's Profile

About Bank Mercantile Discount Ltd.

Mrs. Ester Deutsch                              Mr. Joshua Burshtein
The Chairperson of the Board                     General Manager

(photo: Rami Zrniger)

The Mercantile Discount Bank Ltd. is one of Israel's seven largest Banks.

In 2014, the Bank was rated third in terms of return on equity, fifth in terms of the number of branches and seventh in terms of total assets and shareholders' equity.
The Bank has 73 branches nationwide, from Tarshicha in North to Dimona in the south.

The Mercantile Bank in its many forms, is in existence for about one-hundred years. The origins of the Bank go back to the beginning of the 20th century with the Anglo-Egyptian cooperation in the Anglo-Egyptian Bank that operated in Egypt.

In 1918, the bank extended its operations into Israel, and was acpuired at a later date by British Barclays Bank, its name being changed.

In 1972, the British Barclays Bank and Israel Discount Bank Ltd. established a new company (jointly held in equal parts) under the name of Barclays Discount Bank Ltd., which acquired from Barclays Bank the banking operations and assets of the branches of the bank operating in Israel under its control.

In 1993, discount Bank acquired the interest (50%) of Barclays Bank in Barclays Discount Bank Ltd., turning it into a wholly owned subsidiary of Discount Bank. At acquisition date, the name of the Bank was changed into its present name - Mercantile Discount Bank Ltd.

In 2005, the bronfman-schron Group purchased the control of Israel Discount Bank Ltd., the parent company of Mercantile Discount Bank Ltd.

The Bank's Operations
The bank serves its customers in all fields of economic activity, including the industrial, tourism, transport, commercial and construction sectors, companies, independent business persons and salaried employees– with large, medium and even small sized customers at the hub of its operations. The customers benefit from unequalled personal service in any of the larger banks and large customers receive professional and efficient service.
The bank's operations over 100 years have assisted in deepening its contacts with the Arabic sector and it has an especially strong status amongst this population group. The bank has dozens of branches geographically spread in all the Arab towns and cities in Israel.
The bank also has a number of branches in the Ultra Orthodox sector in which comprehensive banking services are offered to the private and corporate population while adapting the financial services to the target community.

Over the years, the bank has developed ramified international relationships with some of the largest banks in the world. These relationships enable it to provide banking services at a highly efficient level to customers involved in international operations.

The System of Branches
Bank Mercantile Discount is characterized by the highest ramification level and takes sixth place in the banking system regarding this issue. The bank's share of total branches in the banking system is three times larger than its share in the number of employees in the system. The bank's chain of branches is spread from Maalot Tarshihah in the north to Dimona in the South.