Bank Leumi App Now Supports Five Languages for Enhanced Customer Service

Bank Leumi, led by CEO Hanan Friedman, has launched a significant update to its mobile application, making it available in five languages: Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian, and French. This move aims to provide a more accessible and efficient banking experience for its diverse customer base.

Customers can now select their preferred language within the app to perform a wide range of banking operations. These include checking current and foreign currency accounts, ordering credit cards and checkbooks, making money transfers in various currencies, executing interbank transfers, exchanging foreign currency, opening deposits, and applying for loans. The bank has stated that additional services and features will be added to these language options in the future.

A new advertising campaign, developed by the McCann advertising agency, highlights the importance of this multilingual update. The campaign features Gal Toren in a series of videos, illustrating common social situations faced by immigrants and new residents in Israel. It contrasts the challenges of understanding Israeli culture and mentality with the ease of navigating the Bank Leumi app, now available in multiple languages.

The campaign's core insight is that many Israelis speak languages other than Hebrew, even after living in the country for years. The advertisements use relatable and humorous scenarios of Israelis speaking different languages in everyday situations to convey the message that the bank's app is designed for ease of understanding and use, speaking the customer's most comfortable language.

The advertising agency described the main challenge as transforming a functional capability, a banking app in five languages, into a human, funny, and relevant campaign that resonates with users. The solution was to connect Israeli cultural nuances with an immediately understandable app that speaks the customer's language.