State of Israel
In 2004, in view of the transformations and changes that took place in the banking system, including the completion of the merger of several mortgage banks with their commercial banks, the idea of a merger within the Bank Mizrachi group became practical, and in June of that year, the board of directors of Bank Mizrachi decided to take action to merge Bank Tefahot with and into Bank Mizrachi.[5]
In 2005, United Bank Mizrahi and Tefahot Mortgage Bank merged, and since then the bank has been called "Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Ltd." or "Mizrahi-Tefahot".[4]
Bank Mizrahi was established in 1923[6] by the Mizrachi movement and later merged with Bank Hapoel HaMizrachi[7] to form Bank Mizrahi HaMeuhad (United Mizrachi Bank).
In November 2017, Mizrahi Tehafot Bank agreed to buy Union Bank of Israel for US$400 million, thereby consolidating its position as the third largest Israeli bank.[8]
On 12 February 2020, Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot was listed on a database of 112 companies compiled by the United Nations implicated in helping to further Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and Golan Heights,[9] an activity considered illegal under international law.[10]
On 5 July 2021, Norway's largest pension fund KLP said it would divest from Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, alongside 15 other business entities implicated in the report,[11] over the UN's fingering of what it asserted were "banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements and their activities" in the occupied territories.[12]
