Bank of Israel unveils fee cap reform aimed at cutting banking charges

The Bank of Israel announced a new reform on bank fees that is meant to simplify charges on checking accounts and debit cards, reduce the number of tariff plans, and make costs more transparent for households and small businesses. The changes were published on Sunday and are expected to affect millions of Israelis who have struggled to understand what they pay their banks for.

The reform will roll out in stages, starting in October 2026 and again in July 2027. Its centerpiece is a new service called “Payment Account Management,” which will automatically include every customer and bundle most routine banking actions into one monthly fee. The package will cover up to 100 monthly actions, including money transfers, cash deposits and withdrawals, check deposits and redemption, bill payments, document and report issuance, document searches, and instructions to cancel charges.

Banks will be allowed to charge no more than 10 shekels per month for the first 100 actions, while customers who make up to two actions a month will pay no more than 5 shekels. Any extra action beyond the monthly quota will cost at most 1 shekel. The central bank said this is a major change from the current basic package introduced in 2014, which covered only 10 direct-channel actions and one teller action.

The reform also targets debit cards, used by hundreds of thousands of Israelis, including young people, people without credit cards, and vulnerable populations. From October 2026, the monthly debit card fee will be capped at 7 shekels, down from an average of about 9 shekels today. The current arrangement grants a three-year fee exemption only to customers who also hold a credit card, and the new rule expands protection to a broader group for a longer period.

The Bank of Israel also said banks will be barred from charging for several services, including technically returned checks, account searches, and handling inheritances and estates. At the same time, banks may offer new, more flexible service bundles, subject to approval by the Supervisor of Banks. Supervisor Daniel Hachiahashvili said the goal is to make basic banking services simpler, clearer, and more accessible, because the current abundance of fee plans makes it hard for customers to know what they really pay and to compare banks.