Money Matters - IsraTransfer Currency Exchange Weekly Round-Up Podcast Series 2, Episode 1

𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 - 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝-𝐔𝐩 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 2 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 1

Welcome to the latest edition of our Money Matters podcast — and our very first episode of 2026. In this episode, we’re joined by our Head of Trading, Daniel Engelsman, as we take a look back at the Israeli shekel’s performance over 2025, unpacking the key factors behind some of the notable movements we saw throughout the year. 

This episode is especially timely, as at the time of recording on Monday afternoon the Bank of Israel unexpectedly cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4%, so we’ll be watching closely to see how this surprise decision feeds through to currency markets and impacts exchange rates in the weeks ahead.

#MoneyMattersPodcast #ShekelReview #CurrencyMarkets #IsraelEconomy

Transcription:

PRESENTER:

Welcome to Money Matters, the weekly currency roundup podcast brought to you by ISRA Transfer. Whether you're a seasoned investor, an expat managing your finances, or just curious about the world of currency exchange, you're in the right place. Each week, ISRA Transfer's co-founder and head of trading, Daniel Engelsman, will inform us of the latest trends, insights, and market movements that could impact your money.

From currency fluctuations to economic news, we're here to equip you with everything you need to navigate the ever-changing landscape of foreign exchange. So Daniel, in this special review of 2025, what are the key highlights for the shekel across the year? 

DANIEL ENGELSMAN:

Welcome back to the ISraTransfer podcast. My name is Daniel Engelsman. I'm one of the co-founders of IsraTransfer. Today, we're going to talk about the shekel's performance during 2025 and what we can possibly look forward to in 2026. Let's start with the US dollar in 2025.

In fact, every currency during 2025 suffered against the shekel. The shekel strengthened throughout the year, and there's quite a few reasons for that, which we will cover. The dollar started 2025 at a rate of around 3.64. During the year, it reached a high of 3.7805, and the lowest during the year was 3.165. If you look at that range for the year, that's a 16.28% range for the year of 2025.

That means the difference between converting money at the high and the low was a difference of 16.28%, which is huge, which just really puts a real emphasis on trying to time the conversion of your transfers and your trades. Sometimes you don't have a choice when you need to convert money, but 16.28% during the year is a very, very wide range. The pound against the shekel was very similar.

We saw a high of 4.9629 and a low of 4.2753, which was again a range for the year of 13.85%. The euro was more of a strange one. We had a high of 4.27 and a low of 3.66, which was a range of 14.23%. The reason the euro was a bit different was because the difference between the beginning of 2025 and the end of 2025 was only 1% difference, so that's why it was so strange for the euro. Again, we have a very similar story with a Canadian dollar high of 2.69 and a low of 2.28, giving us a 15.1% range throughout the year.

And the reason I haven't gone into detail for each of them is because each of them follow a very similar pattern. The main reason for the strengthening of the shekel throughout the year is mainly due to the end of the war. The end of the war might seem like an overstatement.

I mean, we seem to be at the end of the war, but again, lots of things could happen over the course of the next few months where, you know, lots of rumours about Iran and things like that, where hopefully not that things could, you know, start up again. But no, we've had the ending of the war, plus we've had the interest rates issue. And the interest rates in Israel have pretty much stayed stable or at least haven't been cut as drastically as they have been in other countries and economies around the world.

Having said that, whilst I've been recording this, the Bank of Israel has unexpectedly cut interest rates by another quarter of a percent. The market did not expect that to happen. So it'd be interesting to see what happens after the release of this podcast.

But generally speaking, the shekel has stayed stronger against major currencies because the interest rates have stayed more stable and have been cut at a slower rate than other countries have been cutting interest rates. And the ending of the war, or at least, you know, the ceasefire or peace that we seem to have at the moment has definitely strengthened the shekel. It's important to note that, and interesting to note, that the high that we saw for each of these major currencies was in April when there was still a lot of instability around the war and what was going on on the northern border and breaking of ceasefires.

The interesting part is that when the 12-day war with Iran started in June, you would have thought that the shekel would have weakened quite considerably at that point. But actually, during that point, it stayed quite stable. And in fact, straight after that 12-day war finished, the shekel strengthened quite considerably.

And it's because the way in which we fought that war and the ease at which we kind of destroyed the Iranian capabilities was quite a shock. And it kind of put a big emphasis on the strength of the Israeli army and how much more powerful we are than the Iranian army. So it really strengthened the shekel during that period or straight after it finished.

So we did not see the shekel weakening at that point. The weakness of the shekel occurred in April time. The 12-day war did not have a major impact on the exchange rates at that point.

PRESENTER:

What is the outlook for 2026? 

DANIEL ENGELSMAN:

So looking forward to 2026, we have to hope that peace obviously stays and peace is obviously very good for us. It's not necessarily great for the exchange rates, but I'm sure everyone out there would rather have peace than a bit more shekel for their dollars or pounds. We also have to keep a close eye on the interest rates.

As interest rates fall, which they're expected to do, it depends on the pace at which they're falling. So we really need to keep an eye on that. As I said, interest rates were unexpectedly cut in Israel a few moments ago.

So we will see what happens and the impact is of that. And as we reach record lows, the 3.1 that we saw in January 2022, where the Bank of Israel had to intervene in the market to try and push the exchange rates up, will they intervene at all as we approach those kind of levels, which we're not too far off of at the moment. So interesting times ahead.

We had an interest in 2025 and who knows what will be at this time next year. Thank you so much and keep tuned. 

PRESENTER:

And that wraps up this week's Currency Weekly Roundup.

We hope you found this episode informative and engaging. If you enjoyed today's discussion, be sure to subscribe and let us know if you have any questions you'd like Daniel to answer. For more information on currency exchange and to stay updated with the latest trends, visit us at isratransfer.com. Join us next week for more insights and analysis. 

Until then, stay informed and take care. 

Disclaimer: This podcast provides general information about currency exchange and buying or selling currency.

It does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Listeners should make independent decisions and seek professional guidance. The company is not liable for any actions taken based on this content.