Bank of Palestine Expands Its Presence in Latin America

Bank of Palestine head office in Ramallah, Palestine | Photo: Bank of Palestine

The Bank of Palestine will become the first Arab bank in Latin America when it opens its branch office in Santiago next year and it is now looking for opportunities in Honduras, a country with more than 250,000 Palestinian descendants. The bank wants to create a strong link with the Palestinian diaspora in Latin America and involve them in the development of the nation.

Bank president Hashim Shawa has said the main goal of this expansion is to create a strong link with the Palestinian diaspora and involve them in the development of the nation, but also to strengthen relations with a region that has opened its doors to millions of Palestinians. For instance, in Chile there are more than 500,000 Palestinian descendants, the largest community outside the Middle East.

The services that will be offered in Latin America are those of an investment bank, with the possibility of investing in Palestine, like in property purchases, investment in the stock market in this country, exports and others.

Salim D. Hodali and Jorge Daccarett, bank representatives for the diaspora, visited the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula this week and said that investing in the bank is a safe business because it is not exposed like other foreign markets.

"The bank has a good profit by buying shares; in five years you can earn 50 percent of what you invested. It is an opportunity to make money and do something good for Palestine," Salik said to a group of Palestinians.

Salim added that Palestinians who invest indirectly contribute to the development of social work in their home country which has a population of more than 4.5 million people who are severely impacted by the years-long Israeli blockade, which inflicts pain on people and damages the economy of the Palestinian society.

Founded in 1960, the Bank of Palestine is the first and largest bank in Palestine. It also currently plans to expand this project to Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, which also host large Palestinian communities.

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