The Banking Supervision Department calls to join the fee tracks service for current accounts

The Banking Supervision Department calls on customers, households and small business owners to join the fee tracks service for current accounts 

The Banking Supervision Department is initiating a public information campaign to raise customer awareness of their ability to lower the cost of managing a current account and to encourage competition over fees in the banking system.

 

The Banking Supervision Department is today initiating a public information campaign over radio regarding the fee track service in current accounts.

 

The objectives of the campaign are:

1.      To increase bank customers’ awareness of their rights;

2.      To motivate customers to improve the terms of managing their bank accounts;

3.      To increase the use of the fee track calculator on the Bank of Israel’s website, which enables making an informed consumer decision that is based on the volume of activity that is unique to each customer in his or her account.

 

As of April 1, 2014, the banks are required to set a single price for managing a current account, on two tracks (a basic track and an expanded track).  Each track will include activities available to the customer in a given month for a predetermined price.

 

The basic track includes up to one teller-executed transaction and up to 10 customer-executed transactions over the period of one month.  This track reflects the average activity of a customer in a current account.  This track is under supervision and its price may not exceed NIS 10 per month. 

 

The expanded track includes up to 10 teller-executed transactions and up to 50 customer-executed transactions over the period of one month.  This track is intended mainly for individual and small business customers with above-average volume of activity in the current account.

 

The following are the prices of the tracks at the various banks:

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NIS	Hapoalim	Leumi	Discount	Mizrachi	First International	Union	Mercantile
Basic track	10.0	10.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	10.0	8.5
Expanded track	22.0	20.0	25.0	29.0	26.0	24.0	26.5

 

NIS	Otzar Hahayal	Masad	Yahav	Poalei Agudat Yisrael	Bank of Jerusalem	Arab Israeli Bank
Basic track	10.0	10.0	10.0	9.0	0.0	10.0
Expanded track	27.0	30.0	20.0	29.0	0.0	20.0

 

 

Supervisor of Banks David Zaken said, “The fee tracks provide an additional method of payment for bank customers that did not exist beforehand.  The method reduces the cost of managing a current account in many cases, and enables customers to easily compare the costs of managing an account at the various banks.  I recommend that bank customers devote a few minutes to the issue and examine what the most worthwhile form of fee payment for them is—whether joining one of the offered tracks or by payment per transaction—and to join the tracks where appropriate.

In order for a customer to be able to make an informed decision as to the worthwhileness of joining the tracks service, it has been determined that the banks must show any customer who wishes to join one of the tracks—before he joins—the amount of fees collected from him over the course of the quarter prior to the quarter that precedes his request to join, in respect of the services included in the track, with the type and quantity of transactions listed and divided into months.

 

In addition, in order to assist and to illustrate for each customer, whether a household or a small business, what the most worthwhile method of payment for him is, the Banking Supervision Department created a fee track calculator, which appears on the Bank of Israel website.  The calculator has two objectives:

 

a.    To help any customer examine what the least expensive method of fee payment is for him at the bank at which he manages his account;

b.    To enable the customer to compare the cost of managing an account, in accordance with the characteristics specific to him, at his bank, with the cost of managing the same account at other banks, in order to assess the worthwhileness of moving from one bank to another.

 

Joining the tracks is very easy. It is possible by contacting the bank branch, by phone or by the banking corporation’s website.

 

More information is available on the Bank of Israel’s website at www.boi.org.il.

 

Common services in the current account that will be included in the tracks method

 

Teller-executed activity - activities done by a bank teller, including by way of a manned call center:

 

v  Depositing cash

v  Withdrawing cash

v  Printing and providing an account statement at the customer’s request

v  Transfer or deposit into a different account

v  Redeeming a check (including withdrawal by self-addressed check)

v  Depositing a check (for each group of up to 20 checks)

v  Payment of a coupon

v  Obtaining change for cash

 

Customer-executed activity - the following activities:

 

v  Crediting an account via a clearinghouse

v  Charging a credit card

v  Depositing cash

v  Withdrawing cash via an ATM machine

v  Transfer or deposit into a different account

v  Payment of a coupon

v  Information query on any issue (from the seventh query per month)

v  Withdrawing a check

v  Depositing a check (for each group of up to 20 checks), including by way of the service box

v  Standing bank order or authorized debit