The subcommittee on consumer failures, chaired by MK Limor Magen Telem, held a hearing today examining the protection of consumers who made a bank transfer with the wrong detail. The hearing took place around cases where consumers asked to transfer money from their bank account The bank to which they wanted to transfer the money and so the money reached another person's account without being able to return it.
Oz Ovadia participated in the discussion and told how, due to typing one wrong number, he lost NIS 50,000.
According to him, this is a saga he has been dealing with for five months.
"A few months ago, my partner transferred NIS 50,000 to me in the bank's app and it turned out that there was an error in one of the digits in the branch number," he shared.
"On the same day I informed the bank of the mistake, my partner informed her bank as well. But we did not know what we were facing. The bank said they would ask the customer who received the money to return it, but after many inquiries they said the person was asking for more time and the transfer could not be canceled. It is about 50,000 shekels that were lost, and another 15,000 shekels of expenses, loss of working days and running around. "
The Deputy Supervisor of Banks, Oded Peretz, admitted that this was an angry story, but noted that these were very isolated cases.
According to her, in 2021 almost 40 million digital transfers were made and the Supervisor of Banks received only 7 complaints about incorrect transfers.
She explained that the bank could not put a hand in the account of the person who received the money and could not be a party to the matter.
MK Magen Telem asked why the banks do not cross-examine the beneficiary's name with the account number, and Peretz replied that the bank could not decide whether the name was similar enough to approve a transfer or not. "Problem, they would have encountered faults and not carried them out," Peretz explained.
MK defends mistakes in money transfer: "Why do banks not cross-reference data?"
The director of the foreign relations of the Bankers' Association, Tibi Rabinowitz, said that if there were 5 transfers a day it would have been possible to cross between a number and a name, but when there are millions of transfers it means stopping everything, stopping work and stopping all transfers.
The legal adviser of the Association of Banks, Livnat Kuperstein Dash, added that the bank number together with the branch and account number create a unique identification code, and if all regrets its employees made a mistake in the unique identification code.
She wondered whether for seven cases, out of about 40 million transfers, the method needed to be changed.
MK Magen Telem said she was disappointed with the answers the committee received, that despite all the technology places all the responsibility on the customer who made a mistake. "It is not right and annoying," she said. Issue the same account numbers at the same bank even if the branches are different.
The Committee calls on the Supervisor of Banks to examine the possibility of cross-referencing data between the beneficiary's name and the account number.
I was not convinced that this was such a big burden on the banks.
In addition, the committee wants to add the option of entering the identifying information twice, in order to prevent typing errors. "
The director general of the Histadrut Consumer Authority, Adv. Yaron Levinson, said that the Supervisor of Banks should solve the problem and order the banks to return the money.
He added that the trend seems to be not to mess with a few isolated cases out of 40 million transfers, but these are older people who get hurt and are left behind.
The customer Oz Ovadia asked to comment on what was said, and replied that he believes that there are many customers who make mistakes and do not even try to contact and complain.
"If I had transferred only NIS 5,000, I would not have spent another NIS 15,000 on legal proceedings. The bank does not care about the customer."
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