- The requirements imposed on banks to locate the owners of the lost money were broadened, among other things by expanding the search for the customer’s contact details and contacting the Population Registry in order to locate the owners’ address.
- Every bank is required to verify that there is an organizational function whose role is to verify the handling of dormant deposits.
- Positions were defined for the bank’s senior management and board of directors for handling dormant deposits and the supervision and control of the work of the function responsible for the issue.
- The various interfaces between the bank and the Administrator General were detailed, including determining the additional search requirements imposed on the bank close to the date of reporting to the Administrator General.
Supervisor of Banks Yair Avidan said, “The Banking Supervision Department attributes considerable importance to strengthening the fairness in the relationship between banks and their customers, over the range of services they provide. The new directive emphasizes the importance of banks’ handling of dormant deposits and accounts whose owners are deceased, and makes it possible to use a range of tools to locate customers, with the goal of assisting in the return of the lost money to its owners. In parallel, customers are welcome to continue to utilize the user-friendly tool developed for them, and to enter the “Money Mountain 2” website in order to check, simply and at no cost, if there are dormant deposits in their name, and to assist heirs in locating accounts whose owners are deceased.”
In view of the great importance in returning money from dormant deposits to their owners, the Banking Supervision Department established a new Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive on “dormant deposits and accounts whose owners are deceased”. Within the framework of the directive, the banks’ obligations in handling such deposits and accounts were expanded.
The Banking Supervision Department is also working to update the Order, which establishes the rules for investing dormant deposits, with the goal of establishing a simple mechanism for investing the money.
The publication of the draft is further to the establishment of the “Money Mountain 2” website, which enables bank customers to locate, simply and at no cost, dormant deposits in their name and assists heirs in locating accounts whose owners are deceased.
The site presents customers with the names of banks in which they have dormant deposits, but does not present information about the amounts in the account or deposit—for that, and to withdraw the funds, the customer is to contact the bank whose name and contact details appear in the search results. Similarly, “Money Mountain 2” serves as an efficient tool for heirs seeking to locate bank accounts of deceased people, at no cost.
As of June 30, 2020, there were 539,000 dormant bank accounts and deposits of individuals in the banking system, at a total value of approximately NIS 6.8 billion. Of that, there are approximately 90,000 accounts whose owners are deceased, at a total value of NIS 1.7 billion.
To locate dormant deposits and accounts of deceased owners, enter the “Money Mountain 2” website at https://itur.mof.gov.il/#/main/home?org=bank.
[1] A deposit for which 10 months passed from the last date an instruction from its owners was received. Regarding such deposits, the bank is required to contact the owners close to their redemption date.