Isracard: profit of NIS 74 million in the first quarter of 2021

A sharp increase in the profits of the credit card company Isracard due to the recovery in the economy, and despite the closures in part of the reporting period. The company recorded a profit of NIS 74 million in the first quarter, compared with only NIS 10 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
The provision for credit losses is mainly responsible for the sharp improvement in results: after high provisions of NIS 102 million in the first quarter of 2020, the company returned to normal with a provision of only NIS 12 million. The volume of Isracard's write-offs, which were high relative to the industry, was also cut, to NIS 17 million, compared with NIS 45 million in the corresponding quarter.
The turnover of Isracard credit cards, which controls nearly half of the market, grew by 4.5% to NIS 41.5 billion. Growth was recorded despite the fact that for a significant part of the quarter there was a closure, and online of course was at the center. On the other hand, revenues from credit card operations decreased by 3.5%, due to the sharp decline in transactions abroad due to the closing of the sky, and also due to the decrease in cross-commission, in accordance with the Bank of Israel's outline.
Similar to its competitors, Isracard also saw a decrease in the volume of consumer credit, which fell in the past year by 8.3% to NIS 3.9 billion - the company notes that starting in May, there will be an increase in demand for loans. The data also show that the average interest rate on Isracard loans decreased slightly and stood at 9.1%, compared with 9.2% in March last year.
Isracard planned last year to increase activity in business credit, but the corona crisis caused it to freeze plans, and credit in this sector, which was relatively small anyway, even shrank by 22.5% to NIS 900 million. At the same time, during the first quarter, the decline was halted, and the portfolio even rose by 1% since the beginning of the year. Isracard is a company without a controlling interest, and its chairman is Tamar Yasur.