​The Supervisor of Banks, David Zaken, today (Tuesday, January 6, 2015) presented the Semiannual Report on Households’ Banking Service Fees to the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee. The report is based on reports by the banks and credit card companies of actual revenue from fees they collected in the first half of 2014.

 
The main points of the report:
  • During the first half of 2014, the average monthly cost for a current account for households in the banking system[1], based on a standard activity profile[2], totaled approximately NIS 13.0, compared to about NIS 13.8 in 2013.
A comparison by a standard activity profile in a current account (teller-executed and customer-executed transactions) reveals wide variance among the banks:
  1.  In the banking system at large, the Bank of Jerusalem is the least expensive by a significant margin (with a monthly cost of approximately NIS 0.6). At the other extreme, Mercantile Bank (with a monthly cost of approximately NIS 19.9) and Arab-Israel Bank (with a monthly cost of approximately NIS 16.8) are the most expensive.
  2. Among the five major banks, Bank Hapoalim is the least expensive (monthly cost of approximately NIS 12.1) and First International Bank is the most expensive (monthly cost of approximately NIS 16.2).                   
  • In the first half of 2014, the average actual monthly expenditure for common current account services for households in the banking system[3] amounted to approximately NIS 12.5, compared to NIS 13.5 in 2013. The decline is the result of a reduction in the minimum fee that came into effect on April 1, 2014, from the cumulative amount of two teller-executed transactions, to the amount of one teller-executed transaction.
  

 


[1] Excluding U-Bank.
[2] A profile of monthly activity for an active household account, based on 10 customer-executed transactions and 0.7 teller-executed transactions. It excludes completion to a minimum fee.
[3] The average actual monthly expenditure for common current account services for households is calculated as the total revenue from teller-executed transactions, customer-executed transactions, completion to a minimum fee, and granting of credit divided by the number of current accounts.
[4] Holding a credit card is calculated by revenue from domestic, international and gold credit card fees in relation to the number of cards.