The Bank of Palestine (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: بنك فلسطين), abbreviated as BoP, is a
Palestinian multinational bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
ing organization founded in
Gaza in 1960. It is headquartered in
Ramallah
Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...
,
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and is the leading financial institution in Palestine, with a net worth of $6.5 billion
USD.
History
The bank was established in
Gaza City
Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...
in 1960, making it the first in Palestine. Hasheem Atta Shawa founded it as an agricultural bank to help farmers develop their citrus business since Shawa's family was also in the citrus business at the time. The bank helped farmers with loans for farming equipment.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Hani Shawa took over in running the bank.
Hashim Shawa, aged 31, became chairman and CEO of the bank after his father passed away in 2007.
Since then, the bank has about 1,980 employees and serves over 900,000 customers.
In 2019, the bank was the target of an
amended complaint
In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
titled ''Singer v. Bank of Palestine'' (case number: 1:19-cv-00006) which claimed that the bank aided
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
by providing financial services and maintaining accounts for the "terrorist organization". The Bank of Palestine claimed that there was no legal basis behind the plaintiffs' claims and that they were taking "prompt and strong measures" to get the lawsuit dismissed.
Locations
The Bank of Palestine is the most geographically distributed banking corporation in Palestine, with 74 branches and sub-branches. The bank's head office is located in Ramallah, Palestine. It also has representative offices in
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
, United Arab Emirates, and
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
, Chile.
References
{{reflist
Banks established in 1960
Banks of the State of Palestine