Bank Leumi plans to take Pepper mobile bank global

Bloomberg

After aggressive digitalisation and cost-cutting programs helped turned around Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd, Chief Executive Officer Rakefet Russak-Aminoach is preparing an international expansion of its mobile bank.
“We are looking at going global; we are checking some business plays and considering some partnerships with others” including technology companies and larger banks, she said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Leumi is targeting the bigger markets of the US and Europe, she said, while declining to name any of the companies she’s in discussions with.
The 51-year-old CEO added that at Bank Leumi she plans to continue cutting costs at the same rate as in previous years, after reducing expenses by roughly 25 percent in the four years ending in 2016 to 10.5 billion shekels ($3.1 billion).
“Cost reductions will continue and continue and continue,” she said. “The streamlining process is never ending; we have 3,000 fewer people now than when
we started and I don’t see the bottom” of efforts to reduce expenses, she said.
With near-zero interest rates keeping a lid on revenue growth, Russak-Aminoach has focussed on improving efficiency, freeing up cash to reinstate its dividend and boosting Leumi’s stock to a record. The lender’s shares rose 0.5 percent to 21.36 shekels as of 11:05 a.m. in Tel Aviv, close to the all-time high of 21.74 shekels reached on Jan. 7.
The hallmark of Russak-Aminoach’s strategy has been investing in technology, the largest project of which is Leumi’s mobile-banking business called Pepper.
Launched in June, Pepper is building up a client base at a speed that caught the company off guard, resulting in a bottleneck at the application stage. Russak-Aminoach said she’s confident she’s close to an agreement with the regulator to ease the registration process.