UK subsidiary of Israel’s Bank Leumi appoints new CEO

The UK subsidiary of Israel’s biggest bank has appointed a new chief executive, as Bank Leumi (UK) plc welcomed the former Bucharest chief to London this week.

Before his stint in with Bank Leumi in Romania, Gil Karni led the Israeli desk, after a spell in managerial posts, and next year celebrates quarter of a century at the bank.

“I’m keen to get started in London,” he said. “Working alongside experts in everything from international trade, property and hi-tech to commodities, hotels and media finance, the UK Bank is an exciting posting.”

He acknowledged the bank’s British beginnings, founded in Jaffa in 1902 as the Anglo-Palestine Company, a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, by London-based Zionists keen to promote trade, construction, agriculture and infrastructure in what would one day become Israell

“London is where the Leumi story really began,” said Karni. “I hope to be able to both do justice to the history of the Bank, and help do my part to lead it into the future.”