Bank of Israel overhauls checking-account fees, caps debit card charges

The Bank of Israel’s Banking Supervision Department published the final version of its reform of checking-account fees and debit card charges on Sunday. The goal is to simplify and lower consumer banking fees, make it easier to compare banks, and improve public trust and fairness in the banking system.

Under the plan, daily account activity will be bundled into one standardized service called “Payment Account Management,” covering deposits, withdrawals, transfers and cheque handling. That replaces the current system of charging per action, and means every customer will automatically be moved into a plan with no per-transaction fee and a large monthly allowance of basic operations. The maximum monthly fee will be up to 10 shekels for the first 100 actions, with any additional action costing no more than 1 shekel. The full rollout will end the fee-plan model introduced in 2014, which had relatively low uptake.

The final rules soften the impact on low-activity and vulnerable customers. Accounts with only zero to two actions a month will automatically receive a discount, and their monthly fee will be capped at 5 shekels. Dormant accounts defined by law as deposits with no activity will pay nothing.

The reform also abolishes several outdated bank fees, including fees for a technical cheque return, account tracing, and handling inheritances and estates. A fee for changing a mortgage payment date will be capped at 5 shekels. The biggest concession versus earlier drafts is on debit card fees: the original 5-shekel cap was raised to 7 shekels after the regulator concluded a lower level would not support a viable business model in Israel and could hurt service quality and availability. The new caps on old fees and debit-card supervision take effect on October 1, 2026, while the automatic checking-account plan begins fully on July 1, 2027. The Bank of Israel is also preparing a separate reform on securities fees.