Supervisor
of Banks Dr. Hedva Ber: “The Banking Supervision Department will encourage the
move to digital financial services in order to improve and lower the cost of
services to small businesses. This is part of a long-term strategic process by
the Banking Supervision Department in this area. The need to meet in person with a
representative of the credit card company, and the costs inherent in that, have
made it difficult for small businesses to obtain payments via payment cards and
to move between acquirers and credit card companies, and we are now removing
this impediment.”
The Banking Supervision Department today published a draft revision of Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 418 on “Opening of
Bank Accounts Via the Internet”, which will enable self-employed individuals to
contact an acquirer via the Internet in order to obtain payment card settlement
services, without meeting a representative of the acquirer company in person. This leniency is for small businesses, and
therefore sets out maximum settlement thresholds at the daily, monthly and
yearly levels, which are detailed in the Directive. This process will make it easier for the
self-employed and small businesses to open a business, or to expand an existing
business, and to accept payments from their customers via payment cards. In the view of the Banking Supervision
Department, the measure is expected to encourage the establishment of small
businesses that can offer their customers ecommerce options.
Until now, in order for a small business to be able to accept
payment cards from their customers, the acquirer was required to send a sales
representative to the business for a meeting in order to open the account and
obtain the merchant’s signature on forms.
The need for a face-to-face meeting led to high costs, made the process
longer, and caused some small businesses to continue operating on a cash or
check basis only. The new measure is
another element in the Banking Supervision Department’s policy intended to
support the execution of transactions via electronic means, and is expected to
assist a wide range of small businesses.
Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 418 came into effect in
2014, and made it possible for households to open bank accounts via the
Internet. This amendment is an expansion
of the Directive.