The Bank of Israel is concerned about the rising cost of bank fees and has decided to expand supervision of a series of basic and most common fees, so that the banks will not be able to raise prices without seeking the approval of the supervisor of banks.
The Supervision of Banks published for public comments a draft supervision order on basic current account fees in order to freeze the existing price level. The services in which the supervision will be expanded are "operation by a clerk", "operation through a direct channel", "extended route" and "extended route plus" .
The fees chosen for the purpose of expanding supervision are the most common fees that were established back in 2008 and have not been changed since then.
These are essential services for the public of customers of the banking system, without which the customers will have difficulty managing their accounts.
Last year, Bank Hapoalim raised the "direct channel" fee, while Bank Leumi raised the "extended route" fee.
The Bank of Israel is concerned that the moves of the major banks may cause the other banks to raise the prices of their services, and therefore it was decided to expand supervision.
At this stage it is only a tightening of the supervision without setting a maximum price.
As of today, only the "basic route" service is a banking service whose price is controlled, and it allows you to receive a package of basic services at a discounted price of up to NIS 10.
The Bank of Israel intends to bring additional banking services under supervision, with the aim of freezing the existing price level and ensuring that the prices of commissions for these services will not be increased without the approval of the supervision of banks.
A banking corporation that wishes to increase the rate of these services, compared to the prices existing at the time of the issuance of the order on the matter, will be required to submit a reasoned request to the supervisor of banks for this and obtain his approval.
The Supervisor of Banks, Yair Avidan: "The Supervisor of Banks operates in a variety of ways to allow the public to consume essential and basic banking services, both in bank branches and in the various digital channels, at a fair price."
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