In 2020, the Public Inquiries Unit at the Supervisor of Banks handled a record number (in the last five years) of about 10,500 requests for information and complaints.
This emerges from the review of the Supervisor of Banks, Yair Avidan, for 2020 and a look at 2021.
According to the commissioner, this increase is due, among other things, to the corona crisis and its consequences for the public.
About a quarter of the complaints (24%) were classified by the Supervisor as "justified complaints."
As part of the handling of the complaints, a total of NIS 6.1 million was returned to the public.
This is almost a third of the complaints (30%) in which relief is provided to the applicant, such as financial relief, waiver of debt, fulfillment of an application, restoration of the status quo ante, compensation and more.
The Supervisor added that emphasis was clearly placed on complaints about banking for each and every one, protection of special populations, equality in the provision of banking services, fair advertising and marketing, effective disclosure and transparency, professional and available service, protection of information privacy, fraud protection, responsible business conduct and more.
In almost a third of the complaints, compensation was given to the applicant // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon,
The review also describes cases in which the Supervisor of Banks found room to grant regulatory praise to the banking corporations for handling public complaints, and considers this activity to meet a high standard of fairness.
The Supervisor of Banks ordered the banking corporations in which the defects were found to return money to the group of customers from whom money was illegally collected.
The return of funds to customers as part of this activity is estimated at NIS 14.7 million.
The deficiencies were identified in a variety of issues such as the collection of fees, computer systems, the banking control environment and more.
In recent years, the regulator has increased the use of the administrative enforcement mechanism of imposing a financial sanction on the perception that this mechanism is suitable for dealing with significant and significant violations of consumer regulation provisions in the banking system.
In the period described in the review, three financial sanctions in the amount of more than NIS 2 million were imposed for violating consumer directives in connection with the termination of a contract, the collection of fees and the debiting of a transaction with a canceled debit card.
The banking corporations allocate a lot of resources to deal with their customers' complaints, among other things, through the Public Complaints Commission.
In 2020, the Public Complaints Commissioners in the entire banking system handled about 35,700 complaints and about 13,300 different requests.
• About 75% of the customers who applied to the banking corporation's commissions received a response within 30 days from the date of their application.
• About 25% of the customers who applied to the Public Complaints Commission in the banking corporations received relief following their application.
• Approximately NIS 7.6 million was returned to the public as part of the handling of complaints and requests.