Israel Discount Bank reported a smaller-than-expected 40% drop in quarterly profit due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis and one-time items including an early retirement plan.
Israel’s fourth-largest bank by assets said on Tuesday it earned 258 million shekels ($77 million) in the third quarter, compared with 427 million a year earlier but above a forecast of 249 million shekels in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Discount last month announced it was expanding its early retirement plan to include a total of 500 employees at a cost of 920 million shekels.
Net interest income grew 5.6% to 1.5 billion shekels from a year earlier, while credit loss expenses rose to 330 million shekels last year but were down from 532 million in the second quarter.
Discount has allowed customers to delay mortgage and credit payments since the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak and said 7 billion shekels in payments out of an initial 18 billion shekels remain deferred.
Discount’s Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 10.10% at the end of September, up from 10.08% in the second quarter.