May 15, 2007

NEWS: The Israeli Plastic Boom

Business Data Israel (BDI), announced recently that Israelis held approximately five million credit cards in the past year – an all time record. Total purchases exceeded NIS132 billion, another all-time high.

With ninety percent of the supposed five million cards active, all data points to the fact that Israeli citizens are using their plastic in droves. The lion’s share of the developing Israeli market belonged to the IsraCard company, which was able to boast almost half of all cards issued, at forty-eight percent. Runners-up Cal and Leumi card each held steady at a photo-finish of twenty-six percent apiece. As for the amount of gross purchases, the total soared by almost a full ten percent, pulling in at what computes to US$33.3 billion. BDI’s data reports estimated that the majority of all purchases made were within the category of food products and beverages, accounting for twenty-one percent. Services was the second-largest category, at twenty percent. Industrial products ran a similarly hair-splitting third at nineteen percent.

Unsurprisingly, IsraCard was able to tout the biggest haul for the year, at just over NIS1 billion, or US$252.3 million. On the other hand, however, Cal drew the year’s highest net profits, at NIS126 million (US$31.8 million). Cal’s income for the year was about four-fifths of IsraCard’s, totaling NIS800 million ($201.8 million) at year’s end. For it’s own part, Leumi Card was able to show for its efforts the most significant growth in both net profits and revenues – the former grew by approximately 58 percent, the latter by 20 percent.


   Back to News Main Page