Mark Avner in the campaign as a god.
Soon, apparently, Discount Bank and the credit company will have to separate forces (Photo: Israel Hadari)
Will Discount Bank soon be forced to part with the KAL credit company?
At least according to the recommendation of the Committee for Examining Competition in the Credit Market, the answer is yes:
after many discussions held by the committee and after a hearing process in which the committee heard, among other things, Discount Bank, and in light of the picture that emerges from the processing and analysis of the data, the committee, with the exception of the minority opinion of the supervisor of banks, recommends to the minister The Treasury to exercise its authority according to law and to lower the threshold set by law for the definition of "a bank with a wide scope of activity", in a way that will oblige Discount Bank to part with its holdings in Cal.
From the implementation committee's analysis, it appears that Discount Bank was not a factor generating competition in the banking system.
This is contrary to the intention of the Strom Committee in its original decision to exclude Discount from the obligation to separate from the credit card company it owns.
In addition, although it is not possible to examine the full effect of the separation of the credit card companies on an economic level, the examination showed that the separation increased competition and reduced the concentration in the banking system, including in the consumer credit market, and it even appears that the change in the incentives of the credit card companies had a positive effect and is expected to continue to have a positive effect for their competitive behavior.
Finally, in examining the data, it emerged that the Kal company operates relatively aggressively in the markets where it competes against the separate credit card companies only, while in the other markets where it operates against the banking system in general and the parent company Discount in particular, it does not work effectively to increase competition and reduce centralization in the market.
Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Ram Halinkov. He headed the committee that recommended the separation of the bank and the credit company (Photo: Nir Landau, Walla system!)
In light of the results of the separations that have already been carried out, assessments of the impact of the expected separation and the position that increasing the number of players in the market is expected to have a positive effect on competition in the banking market, including in the consumer credit market, significantly, the implementation committee believes that using the minister's authority will increase competition and reduce centralization in the banking system, including in the consumer credit market, and therefore she recommends the minister to use this authority.
The committee is chaired by the director general of the Ministry of Finance, Ram Belinkov, and the head of the research division at the Bank of Israel, Michel Stravchinsky, and its members include the supervisor of banks Yair Avidan, the commissioner of competition, Michal Cohen, the commissioner of the capital market, Amit Gal, The head of budgets at the Ministry of Finance, Yogev Gerdos, and the head of payment systems at the Bank of Israel, Oded Salomi.
Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Ram Blinkov
: "The findings presented to the committee indicate that the proposed change may contribute to Cal and Discount's incentive to challenge the balance that exists in the worlds of payments and credit, in a way that will lead to a reduction in centralization and an increase in competition in the credit market, which will be reflected in the credit offered to the consumer."
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