To full report (Hebrew)​


·      In 2015, the decline in the monthly cost of managing a current account continued, while the monthly cost of using a credit card remained stable.

·      The average monthly cost for 2015 totaled about NSI 25.5 for a household or private banking account.  Over the past five years (2011–2015), there was a decline of about 13.3 percent in this cost.

·     During 2016, a number of guidelines are expected to come into effect, which will lead to a further decline in fees, an increase in transparency, and an improvement in the state of the banking customer.

·     As of February 2016, a Banking ID is produced for every customer.  This is an overall summary report of banking activity, presented in a uniform format.  The Banking ID is another important tool provided by the Banking Supervision Department for every customer, to assist in understanding and in informed and more worthwhile financial behavior.

 

 

Supervisor of Banks Dr. Hedva Ber today submitted the semi-annual report on the price of common household banking services to the Knesset Economics Committee.  The report is based on a report of the banks’ and credit card companies’ actual revenue from fees they collected in the second half of 2015.

 

The main points of the report are:

 

The cost of managing a current account and holding a credit card for a household or private banking current account is in a downward trend.  The average monthly cost for managing a household or private banking current account in 2015, and for holding a credit card, totaled about NIS 25.5.  In the past five years, this cost declined by about 13.3 percent.

 

In 2015, this cost included:

·         The cost of managing a current account and receiving information totaled about NIS 14.7.

·         The cost of holding and using a credit card totaled about NIS 10.8.

 

There are means of lowering the cost of managing a current account available to customers.

·         Direct banking—The cost of customer-executed banking services (ATMs, Internet, cellular application) is about 75 percent lower than the cost of the same services executed through a teller.  The use of customer-executed channels has other benefits for the customer, beyond lower costs, including 24/7 availability and convenience in obtaining most services (consumption of services from any location, at any time, without needing to physically go to the branch).

·         Fee tracks—The least expensive and most worthwhile way for a household to manage a current account, joining the tracks service is simple and easy, and can be done by telephone, through the banking corporation’s website, or at the branch.  The Banking Supervision Department calls on customers to examine the worthwhileness of joining the tracks service, based on their account activity (normal number of customer-executed transactions and number of teller-executed transactions per month in the account).

·         Use of the Banking ID—The Banking ID, which is available to all bank customers, enables each customer to see how much he pays in fees during the year, compare fees, and make informed decisions regarding the consumption of banking products and services.

 

Fees for securities transactions

Direct banking—the fee for a purchase or sale transaction via the Internet is lower than the fee for issuing an order through a bank teller.  Customers can lower the prices by moving to direct means.  These means, as stated, offer additional advantages.  The discount for executing securities transactions via the Internet ranges from 10 to 53 percent.  See the detailed report for details.

 

Changes in fees that will lower the cost of fees this year take effect

During 2016, legislative changes in the area of fees are expected to take effect, which will continue the trend of lowering the costs of banking services for households.  These include:

·         Reducing the fee for standard statements to NIS 15 (fees currently range from NIS 13 to NIS 55).

·         Adding an initiative of the banking corporations to the basic track service for customers who are senior citizens and customers with disabilities, for whom the service has been identified as worthwhile.

·         Reducing the fee for changing the date of repayment of housing loans from NIS 125 to the level of a teller-executed transactions (about NIS 6.5).

 

The Bank of Israel calls on the public to become informed consumers of banking products and services, and provides consumers with information and tools, including advice on lowering costs, on the Bank of Israel website at:

http://www.boi.org.il/en/consumerinformation/pages/Default.aspx