The final date for submitting comments by the public regarding the Interim Report of the Joint Committee for Promoting Advanced Means of Payment has been revised to February 21, 2016.
 
 
 
After that date, the Committee will hold hearings on the Interim Report.
 
 
 
 
The report includes recommendations for increased competition, efficiency and stability in the advanced means of payment market and in the payment and settlement systems infrastructure
 
 
·     The Joint Committee for Promoting Advanced Electronic Means of Payment publishes its interim report, as part of the process for advancing the payment and settlement systems in Israel.
·     The recommendations focus on measures to encourage new solutions for the promotion of the use of advanced means of payment through setting up the appropriate infrastructure.
·     The implementation of the recommendations is expected to encourage the public’s use of advanced means of payment, streamline the market, strengthen its stability, enable the entry of new players, and thereby increase competition in the settlement market.
 
 
The Joint Committee for Promoting Advanced Electronic Means of Payment[1] completed its main recommendations, as required in order to advance the use of advanced means of payment, and is publishing its recommendations for public review.  The recommendations focus on measures to encourage the development of new solutions for advancing the use of advanced means of payment, through setting up the appropriate infrastructure that will enable competition, efficiency, safety, credibility and ease of use of these means of payment.  As part of the Committee’s work, it examined various advanced means of payment and solutions connected with their use, including digital checks, electronic wallet, cellular payments, and Internet-based payments.
 
The Committee believes that the advancement of the use of advanced means of payment in the payment system in Israel must be done as an integrated process that includes the arrangement of legal, technological and consumer infrastructure.  Accordingly, the Committee’s recommendations are:
 
1.      To establish a main settlement infrastructure and a secured national communications infrastructure for making payments through advanced means.
2.      To formulate a legislative memorandum to regulate payment services, payment accounts and settlement and issuance services.
3.      To adjust the existing legal infrastructure for activity through advanced means of payment.
4.      To promote infrastructure at points of sale (POS) that will make it possible to execute contactless transactions.
5.      To examine the transaction execution chain for digital checks.
6.      To promote consumer education and the creation of consumer confidence in advanced means of payment.
 
The Committee will continue to act in order to promote the use of advanced means of payment according to the outline of the report by the Committee to Examine Reducing the Use of Cash in Israel's Economy (the Locker Committee) and according to its recommendations.  The Committee will continue to monitor the development of advanced means of payment in the Israeli payment system.
 
The Chairman of the Committee, Ms. Irit Mendelson, said: “The interim report is a further important step among all the measures
taken by the Bank of Israel that are intended to make the payment and settlement system more sophisticated and to increase competition in it.  Implementation of the Committee’s recommendations will make it possible to promote the use of advanced means of payment, and will encourage the development of new solutions that will in the future constitute means of payment held by each citizen.  They will also make it possible for new players to enter the market, which will increase competition in the payment system.”
 
The public is invited to send comments on the interim report to nir.levy@boi.org.il no later than 21/12/15.

[1] The Committee is chaired by Ms. Irit Mendelson, Director of the Accounting, Payment and Settlement Systems Department at the Bank of Israel, and includes representatives of the Bank of Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Israel Police, the Israel Tax Authority, the Anti-Trust Commissioner, the National Cyber Bureau, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, and the National Information Security Authority.