To Full Report
 
The Deputy Supervisor of Banks, Adv. Odeda Perez, Head of the Bank-Customer Division:  “The main role of the Banking Supervision Department is to protect the public interest, both by maintaining the stability of the banking system, and by strengthening fairness in relations between the banks and their customers and entrenching the public’s trust in the banking system.
 
“In March 2013, an interministerial team examining the steps necessary to increase competition in the banking system completed its work.  As part of their examination, the team found that the bank’s retail activity segments—households and small businesses—are characterized by an absence of competitive threat from outside the banking system.  As such, and in view of the characteristics of the banking industry, there is concern that the extent of competition in these segments is low.
 
“In view of these findings, the Banking Supervision Department acted, through the Regulation Unit in the Bank-Customer Division, to refresh and set out behavioral standards in relations between the banking corporations and their customers.  These standards are intended to increase competition between existing players, remove impediments and reduce information and knowledge gaps, ensure proper and fair behavior in relations between the banking corporations and their clients, and lead to increased transparency and simplification of the banking product.  In addition, due to the importance of the small business segment to economic activity, and recognizing the existence of structural difficulties inherent in its activity, the Banking Supervision Department adopted additional measures intended to assist on-going activity and lower the costs of managing their accounts.
 
“All of the measures adopted by the Banking Supervision Department are intended to enable the customer to understand what banking services are appropriate for his or her type of activity in the account, and to assist him or her in more easily discerning the material costs of those services, conduct a market survey, and act to implement his or her decisions without impediments and at minimum cost.
 
“The objective of this report is to bring some of these measures enacted in the area of bank-customer relations to the attention of the public, particularly the innovations regarding the customer’s rights vis-à-vis the banking system, which are derived from the updated consumer regulations in 2014.  Increased public awareness of these rights, including by way of this report, will assist in reducing information gaps between the public and the banking corporations, thereby strengthening the customer’s position in his or her daily interactions with the banking system and improving his or her ability to insist on his rights in an informed manner.”