Case Study: Bank Leumi achieves superior shareholder returns with SAS Credit Risk Management

Low-risk strategy delivers top-level returns

Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank with about 30% domestic market share, 13,000 employees and roughly ILS 331 billion (US$90 billion) in assets, needed to improve commercial and corporate credit risk management to sustain high capital ratios and deliver superior shareholder returns. The bank faced a complex, concentrated portfolio of largely untraded companies and required an integrated, institution‑specific approach rather than a passive, regulation‑centric one.

Bank Leumi implemented SAS Credit Risk Management — including a single SAS Detail Data Store, a modeling lab for PD/LGD/EAD, structured rating questionnaires and scenario/stress‑testing tools — to integrate risk analytics into business decisions and support RAROC‑based lending discipline. The solution improved concentration management and decision‑making, helping the bank maintain a top-tier capital ratio (target 14–14.5%) and deliver shareholder returns that were 16% higher than the Tel Aviv banking index over the five years to August 2010.

Bank Leumi

Boaz Galinson

Head of Credit Risk Modeling and Measurement Group