Hapoalim said its agreement follows a meeting between its CEO, Dov Kotler, and NBB Group CEO Jean-Christophe Durand during the first-ever Israeli business delegation to Bahrain last November.
The memorandum is a “historic step” as part of strengthening economic and financial relations between the two countries in recent months, Bank Hapoalim said in a press release.
“The agreement sends an important message to the Israeli economy and the public in Israel, and is primarily intended to contribute to laying the foundations on which large-scale collaborations between the business sectors in Israel and Bahrain will grow,” Leumi chairman Samer Haj Yehia said.
The agreements follow similar collaboration deals that Hapoalim and Leumi made with top UAE banks following the Avraham Accords.
Government-owned NBB is the largest bank in Bahrain and has branches in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.