The US government has ordered bank accounts of 4 Israelis to be frozen due to acts of terrorism on their behalf against Palestinians.

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch announced today that he intends to levy a very high tax on the exceptionally high profits earned from the increasing interest rates. Smotritch says they didnt earn these progfits by being more efficient or by hard work, but by playing with the par between the interest rates raised by the Bank of Israel that they collect on loans and the lower interest rate they give to clients for their savings accounts.

Logging into my bank account online recently has the following message popping up warning me of  upcoming changes in the bank..


The warning says that as of March 14, 2018, my branch (Hapoalim in RBS) will be converted to a branch  holding no cash and no clerk services. From that date and on, all relevant services will be provided via the self-service machines. Other direct channels to the bank, such as via Internet, telephone, and app, will continue to function and be available. When necessary, bank branch 692 (the central Bet Shemesh branch located in downtown Bet Shemesh) will be available for all clerical services.

This is a trend happening in all the bank chains all over Israel. They are closing and/or merging branches in order to consolidate and save money.

Personally, I hate going into the bank and avoid it as much as possible. I use the machines to deposit checks,  as I get a lot of these through my business, and I use the online services. The only time I go into the bank is if I am sent a notice that I need to come in and pick up a problematic check that I deposited, or if they tell me I need to come in to sign something. Once every few years I also need to renew my credit cards.

The biggest problem I see with this is that half the times the various self-service machines are not functioning properly. Currently, they can be fixed or rebooted relatively quickly (not including Saturday nights and Sundays when the branch is closed), as I or someone else can go into the bank and let them know, but with no actual bank behind it with real people talking to customers, I can see it taking longer to get the machines fixed. Maybe they will keep a small branch open with some services still provided by clerks, such as mortgage services and the like, and that will keep bank people nearby.

Additionally, with everyone needing personal service in the entire city going to one branch, that place will be packed and will be impossible to use.

Another point is that closing a branch in lieu of online services in a largely Haredi neighborhood seems like a bad idea. While many/most people do have Internet and app access, many do not and they need the in-bank services for a lot of what they do.

I get why they are doing this but I don't like it, even though I don't like going into the bank anyway.

UPDATE: to clarify, the bank branch is not closing but they are putting an end to cash services. There will be no tellers for deposits and withdrawals. Other clerks and the various services they provide will still be functioning as they have until now

Strange story here - that led to a 100 million shekel lawsuit...

A fellow claims he tried to open a bank account for the funding of the construction of the Third Beit Hamikdash. He claims that God appeared to him in a dream and told him to build the Temple. When he tried to open a bank account to process donation for this project, the banks refused to open the account. Five different banks, they all refused. He went to the District Court in Beer Sheva, claiming he was refused for no good reason, and they too told him to jump in a lake. This fellow has now also appealed to the Supreme Court, only to be rejected by them as well.

His rejection by the courts was actually for peripheral reasons. he had not supplied the right, or enough, documentation proving his financial situation or how his finances were affected by the rejection.
source: NRG Law

Sounds interesting. I'd like to know on what basis the banks refused to open the account. Even if they thought he is a crackpot, why would they not want his money?

We pretty much have a rule that nowadays anybody who says God spoke to him is pretty much a crackpot. I wonder if or how we will ever believe the Mashiach or Elijah or any other modern-day prophet when that should come to be...

The story goes that Shortly before John Dillinger, famous bank robber from the era of the Great Depression, died under a hail of FBI bullets emerging from the Biograph Cinema, Chicago, the USA’s public enemy No I gave his last radio interview. “Mr Dillinger”, asked the very brave radio journalist “Why do you rob banks?” “Because”, Dillinger replied “that is where the money is.”

That response, "because that's where the money is", later became famous and was largely attributed to Slick Willie Sutton. Willie Sutton was a bank robber spanning 40 years and spent over half of his adult life in prison. In an interview in 1951 and then again in 1952, Sutton was asked why he had chosen the career of robbing banks. he answered, "because that's where the money is".

photo credit: Yaakov Lederman

That has not changed, even though nowadays much of the money is digital Nobody is walking into Paypal headquarters and holding them up. But this morning a bank was held up in RBS, of all places, and robbed. Who would have thought such a violent crime would occur in this bedroom community of religious Jews???

Shortly after opening, a masked man walked into the RBS branch of Bank Leumi. He went over to a teller and handed her a paper that had written on it, in Hebrew, "this is an armed robbery". Give me the money". The teller gave him a bundle of money, later announced by someone to be a sum of 6,000 NIS, and he ran off.

The police came, with a bunch of police vans and even a helicopter, but the bank robber has yet to be caught.

Banking reforms are the next thing we need to deal with, after the reforms we implemented in the cellular and television markets.The weak have no power to argue, to scream and to influence. The strong are the ones who get the cheapest prices..... The banks profit a billion shekels every quarter. This money comes from the interest that the public pays. If they profit 100 million, would that not be enough? This money comes from you, and from your parents, and not justly. We see now in the banks that if someone has money he gets interest rates of 1.5%, and if he does not he gets rates of 6% - 7%...
We can do this differently. In the past 60 years no new bank has opened up in Israel, no competition has been created, this is very troubling and is not understandable to me. By bringing in more banks, we will pay lower interest rates and lower commissions. The same is true with the food industry and with every aspect of our lives..

 -- Minister of Communications and Minister of Social Services Moshe Kachlon

If Kachlon is eyeing the banking industry for the next sages of reforms, does that mean he is looking for either a ministerial appointment or some other form of being appointed to implement reforms? Perhaps this means his time-out from politics does not mean a time-out from working for the public.

One of the fundamentals of banking is that a deposit into a bank account is like a loan to the bank. The depositor is lending the bank money, of which a large percentage of that can be used by the bank to lend to other people.

The banks take deposits, but offer no interest on a bank account with a positive balance. On the other hand, they do collect interest on credit, on loans and on bank accounts with a negative balance. Bank accounts with a negative balance, also known as overdraft, minus and being in the red, are considered as if the bank gave the account holder a loan, and they collect interest on it.

While "fair" is never really a good word to use, this situation is unfair, or perhaps unbalanced. the banks do not pay interest on the money lent to them in the form of deposits, but the bank collects interest on the money  lent out by them in the form of overdraft and credit.

Yesterday, MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas) proposed a new law by which, if it were to pass, banks would have to pay interest to account holders with a positive balance.

The law has been unsuccessfully proposed in the past.
(source: The Marker)

I hope this law passes, It is absurd that we lend the banks money but get no interest, even if it would only be a little bit, while they take high interest on our overdraft.

If this passes, it will require us to relook at at our hetter iska and possibly create a need for new arrangements. Right now we have hetter iskas with the banks so they can collect interest from us. For us to collect interest from them, we might need new arrangements.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

Quote Of The Day

Israelis complain about over-draft, but in the United States of America there is no over-draft. As soon as you reach "minus" - they fine you immediately, and you need to request to pay the debt via credit card..

  --- Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fisher in a discussion in Knesset Finance COmmittee about bank fees and interest rates
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

I went into Bank Leumi today to talk about the possibility of opening an account there.

The one thing you notice right when you walk in, you can't miss it, is the four large LCD screens displaying images of the directors of Bank Leumi receiving a bracha from Rav Elyashiv. Everywhere you look in this little branch of Bank Leumi there is a screen facing you with the images displaying.

I was almost embarrassed with the commercial way they are using Rav Elyashiv's images. Just like Shaquille O'Neal making a commercial for vitamin water, Rav Elyashiv is now making commercials for Bank Leumi. Except Shaq is getting paid millions of dollars for use of his image, and Rav Elyashiv isn't even being paid anything at all, but Bank Leumi is probably raking it in because of the use of his image..

Rav Elyashiv and Shaquille O'Neal are both making commercials, but at least Shaq is getting paid. How embarrassing to use a gadol like that.

Better luck next time.

Yosef Mozeson, the Gerrer Hassid running to be appointed as new director of Bank Leumi, lost in his bid for the job, and in his bid to join the board.

The board voted on the 5 new positions, and Mozeson did not make the cut.

Before the vote, Mozeson presented his final attempt to the board when he said, "Since until now I was busy with my personal business dealings, and not with public companies, I have not been able to present a long list of public positions like the other candidates were able to...
With the grace of heaven I merited great success in my personal business dealigns. Now I wish to be appointed to the "directorion" of Bank Leumi. I hope the shareholders will choose me, and I will be able to integrate into the running of the bank, together with the current directors and the new appointees that will soon be chosen who are all well known in their abilities."

Oh well.

Do you recognize this man?

Some guy wearing a big bright blue Yarmulke robbed a bank in Connecticut yesterday....

Strange.

This image is from the surveillance cameras. The guy didn't even try to mask his face.

Strange.

The Gerrer hassidim are going through some bad times. After becoming very dominant in the haredi world and taking many leadership roles and seeing much success, recently they have been hit with some hard, and probably stinging, failures. The most prominent of those is the recent decision to build the Barzilai Emergency Room in its original designated location, rather than the alternate as insisted on by Yaakov Litzman.

The most recent failure, perhaps not quite as prominent though, is the 26 year old Gerrer from Bnei Brak who was pushing his candidacy for the directorship of Bank Leumi, simply because he bought a small amount of stocks in the company. His main point of experience upon which he based his candidacy is that he worked for a haredi website for a short period, writing articles, before they shut down because of the Internet ban.

So how did he fail? He made a big push for his candidacy for the directorship position. The drive to find a new director has gone to the next step - the committee has submitted its list of 5 recommended candidates for the position. Yosef Mozeson's name was not on the list.

That pretty much makes his chances to be next to nothing... I am sorry to see that, and I hope he pushes on. It would definitely have been interesting to watch him run a large international bank like Bank Leumi....

Why can't supermarkets just sell food anymore? Why do they have to become banks and peddle credit cards? Is the food industry not profitable enough?

I am so sick of being pestered to sign up for a new credit card, I am, bli neder, going to avoid certain stores as much as possible, even if it means paying slightly more on some items at other stores.

Every time I walk into the supermarket it is the same shpiel - do you have our credit card? no? why not? it is free of charges for the first year! blah blah blah. Do they think we just came from the moon and have not heard the shpiel every week or two for the past 6 months?

I am not interested in my supermarket becoming my bank and my creditor. Just sell me my milk, cornflakes and toilet paper and let me go home in peace.

This is just strange. Bank Leumi is looking for a new Director, as the Attorney General recently invalidated the recent appointment of the new Director.

The bank is accepting applications. A 26 year old Gerrer chassid is taking advantage of a loophole and is applying for the position.

Yosef Mozeson from Bnei Brak bought himself a couple of shares in the bank in order to meet the requirements to apply for the job. he says he is qualified for the position as he knows "Mishpat Ivri" from his Torah learning, he knows finance from buying stocks on the market, he has run a website (which closed during the Internet ban) and works currently as a journalist for a haredi paper, and he is clean from any police record.

I wish him luck. He says he is seriously running for the position and is arranging meetings with major shareholders to drum up support.

Here is an interview with Mozeson:

מוזסון from bhol on Vimeo.

Rav Avraham Yosef, the son fo Rav Ovadya Yosef, the Chief Rabbi of Holon and the host of a very interesting halacha program on Radio Kol Chai, said a psak on his program on Friday.

Rav Yosf said that one should avoid depositing checks into the bank (in Israel where the banks are owned and employed by Jews) on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

The problem with this is that, Rav Yosef says, the banks process these checks, and balances the data, on shabbos itself (Friday night specifically) with Jewish employees.

Rav Yosef adds that one could derive benefit from money deposited in this time-frame on Sunday morning, as the bank does these activities on shabbos for its own benefit, but one should refrain from it so as to prevent causing others to sin. i.e. if you can avoid on Sunday using money that was deposited on Thursday afternoon-Friday you should try to, but it is allowed.

Personally I am surprised to hear that the banks work on Shabbos and have employees processing transactions into Friday night. if it is true, why have the haredi askanim not yet prohibited us from using banks (whichever specific bank does this), or fought the banks to stop them from doing so. Instead of working Friday night, they could work Saturday night (if it has to be absolutely done at night between Friday day and Sunday morning and cannot wait until Sunday).

Are the banks fined for transgressing the shabbos laws of Israel?

Was it well known (to everyone except me) that banks work on shabbos? This is the first time I have heard such a thing.

In light of my recent post about bank robberies, there have been a couple more bank robberies this week. I think a Postal bank got hit, yesterday a Bank Beinleumi got hit, both for small amounts.

The big hit was yesterday in the Netanya branch of Bank Hapoalim. The robbers got away with 2.5 million shekels (it does not sound as much when it is said in dollars - about $650,000).

They are describing the hit as having gone down like this: they suspect the robbers went into the bank before closing the night before, but never left. Maybe they hid out in a bathroom or an empty office until the bank was closed. They slept somewhere in the bank overnight. In the morning when the employees arrived to open the bank, the robbers grabbed them and forced them to open the safe and give them the money. In the process they shot a security guard and injured him. They then made their way out and escaped in a waiting Fiat with the loot.

I figure they will be caught pretty quickly.

1. They can check the surveillance cameras from the evening before to see who entered but did not leave (if that is really how they got in).
2. It is a small country and not too many places to hide sudden wealth.
3. However else police track down bank robbers, with their contacts, leads and informants.

As they say, they rob banks because that is where the money is...

Willie Sutton was a famous bankrobber for about 30 years between 1920 and about 1952. His career included knocking over about 00 banks and three prison escapes. There is a famous phrase attributed to Sutton. Supposedly he was asked by a reporter why he robbed banks. His answer, according to the legend, was "Because that is where the money is."

This is really urban legend because later in his life he wrote an autobiography (partly ghostwritten) in which he denied ever having said that phrase... and a reporter probably made it up...

Regardless of the urban legend and real source of the phrase, it still lives on and is associated with Sutton.

Tonight I heard on the news about someone who had tried to rob a branch of a bank about a month ago had been caught. (He had been caught right away, but th police just now allowed the media to release the info).

Maybe 60 - 80 - 100 years ago robbing banks and getting away with it was fairly easy. The country (America) was wide open. There was no instant communication to send out pictures and alerts, there were no video surveillance systems and hi-tech security... So if someone wanted to rob a bank, and planned it well, maybe he could make his escape and get away with it, at least for a number of years until it eventually caught up with him.

But nowadays? Why would anybody rob a bank nowadays? I doubt there was a single bank robber (in Western countries) in the past 20 - 30 years that got away with it. They all get caught. the level of surveillance and security make it impossible. And if somehow you successfully broke into the bank and got away, your capture is quick in coming. The police email your image to all neighboring states. They stop flights or at least pass your image around airports and bus depots and every other form of transportation. Television flashes your image wherever they want to show it.

People simply do not get away with bank robberies anymore. Not only that, but the banks do not even hold that much money on site like they used to.

Is it really worth it? Why, nowadays, do robbers rob banks? Sutton's (supposed) answer does not work...

As a result of Israel declaring Gaza to be enemy hostile territory, the best thing that could have happened to Gaza just did.

Bank Hapoalim today announced that because of Gaza's status, it will stop working in Gaza and break off its connections with the various Gazan banks and bank branches.

The commissions and fees at Bank Hapoalim are so high that this announcement can only be good for the residents of Gaza! They will now have more money in their pockets, because Bank Hapoalim will be taking less out from them!

And todays "Quote of the Day" segment is brought to you by the tomato growers association.

Ever since the banks raised many of their fees last month, there has been a debate going on about whether to, and how to, legislate the banking fees. The banks are pulling in record profits and they keep raising their rates for everything. In a free market, a bank could take the chance on raising its rates. A competing bank might lower some of its rates. The competing bank might pick up some business from disgruntled customers of the bank that raised its rates.

In Israel it does not work like that. There is a certain amount of collusion among the banks, so there is no free market and no real competition. As soon as one bank announces it is raising its rates, the others all fall in line and raise their rates as well.

The debate is still raging and nobody knows how it will turn out.

In the meantime the quote of the day comes from MK Yaakov Cohen of the UTJ party. He said, "God in His benevolence set it up that we purchase our tomatoes at the fruit and vegetable store and not at a bank. If we had to purchase them in a bank, we would pay fees for weighing the tomato, for bagging the tomato, for the right to select a tomato, etc."