Perhaps even more striking is the area of consumer loans, which is entirely dominated by the banks, and in particularly by the large banks in Israel. This was always the case, but as banks have receded from granting credit to large corporations, they have increased credit to consumers.
Indeed during the past decade, retail credit, including mortgages, has grown much faster than any other type of credit. Over the same period, institutional investors have broadened the allocation of their assets, particularly with respect to investments abroad which have grown from 8% to 19% of their assets between 2005 and 2015.