Phoenix, Israel’s largest insurance group, is setting up a mortgage company to provide home loans to private customers through its subsidiary Gamma Credit, which already consolidates the group’s lending operations. The move comes amid rising competition in Israel’s nonbank mortgage market.
Phoenix is expected to offer relatively attractive rates because of its broad access to capital, even though it is not a bank. It will join other nonbank players already operating through subsidiaries, including Yad1? Actually the source names Direct Financing, Albar, Carasso, Shlomo Sixt, Mivol and Black Edge. Banks still dominate the market, holding about 95% of Israeli mortgages.
Nonbank lenders are not subject to the same strict Bank of Israel supervision, so they can lend beyond the banking limit of 70% of a property’s value for home improvers and are not bound by the same monthly repayment underwriting rules. That flexibility allows them to lend to borrowers banks may reject, including people with unstable income, and to investors at up to 50% financing, above the bank ceiling.
The mortgage market in Israel is estimated at 100 billion to 120 billion shekels in a normal real estate year, and about 110 billion shekels in mortgages were taken in 2025. Phoenix said it is preparing to expand its credit offering as part of a growth strategy, and cited synergy with consumer credit and residential development financing. The company also pointed to the expected rollout next year of the “lean bank” reform, which would allow a faster, cheaper path to a banking license and let qualifying groups offer banking services, including accounts, payments, cards, deposits and credit, under tailored capital and regulatory requirements.
