The Supervisor of Banks contacted the CEOs of the banks as well as the Ministry of Defense and the National Insurance Institute, with the goal of improving awareness among people with disabilities of the benefits to which they are eligible regarding fees.

 

In accordance with the Banking (Service to Customer)(Fees) Rules, 5768-2008, a “person with disabilities” is defined as a customer who presents to the bank an authorization from the Ministry of Defense or the National Insurance Institute, according to which the customer has a disability at a level of 40 percent or more.

 

In accordance with these rules, a person with disabilities is eligible to carry out 4 teller-executed transactions per month at the cost of customer-executed transactions. In addition, the banks are required to enroll a person with disabilities in the basic fee track[1], to the extent that the track has been examined and found to be beneficial for the customer, They are also to inform the customer of being enrolled and of the option of cancelling the enrollment.

 

Enquiries received at the Banking Supervision Department indicate that many customers are not aware of this benefit and do not utilize it. In view of the importance of making customers with disabilities aware of the banking fee discounts to which they eligible, but without adversely impacting the privacy or feelings of those customers, the Supervisor of Banks contacted the banks in order that they act to bring the fees benefit to the attention of such customers.

 

In addition, the Banking Supervision Department also contacted the National Insurance Institute and the Ministry of Defense with a suggestion to check together for appropriate ways to notify such customers about the banking fees discount. This is from the point of view that notifying the customers close to the time when they are declared as a person with disabilities, by the institution responsible for that and that works on a routine basis to notify persons with disabilities of their rights, will be effective and will lead to that person acting to arrange those rights at the bank, in parallel with their arrangement in other areas as well.


[1] The “basic fee track” is defined as “a track that includes up to one teller-executed activity and up to 10 customer-executed transactions in a 1-month period”.