The two largest lenders in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bank Hapoalim and Emirates NBD, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as the two countries move to forge ties, a statement from Hapoalim said on Monday.
It is the first banking agreement between lenders in the two countries since they agreed to normalize ties under a U.S.-brokered accord.
"The MoU marks a historic first as the banks look to further cooperation ties following the establishment of financial and economic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel," the Bank Hapoalim statement said.
The UAE, along with Bahrain, is due to sign a normalization deal with Israel on Tuesday at a White House ceremony hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Israel and the two Gulf Arab nations have talked up the economic opportunities that formal relations would bring and several business cooperation agreements have already been signed.
Hapoalim led an Israeli business delegation to the UAE last week. Another Israeli bank, Bank Leumi, led a separate delegation there on Monday.
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Meeting between Bank Hapoalim representatives and UAE officials and businessmen
(Photo: Bank Hapoalim)
The statement comes just a day after the Weizmann Institute of Science and the United Arab Emirates' Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) have signed an MoU, the first academic cooperation agreement between the nations.
A delegation headed by Weizmann Institute President Prof. Alon Chen is expected to travel to Abu Dhabi next week to finalize the details of the MoU and discuss its implementation.