The Knesset plenum approved in a preliminary reading MK Miri Regev's banking bill, which seeks to oblige a banking corporation to pay a customer interest on a credit balance in a checking and savings account. According to the proposal, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, after consultation with the advisory committee and with the approval of the Minister of Finance, will determine the minimum interest rate that will be paid to a customer on a credit balance in the account.
The explanatory notes to the proposal state: "Since banks currently charge customers a commission for each transaction and charge their accounts with interest on debit balances, a parallel arrangement should be established that would require them to pay their customers interest on credit balances. In past years, some banks paid this interest, and it seems that this practice should be renewed today. This amendment may encourage bank customers to write off the debt balance in order to earn interest on the credit balance.".
MK Miri Regev: "The idea underlying the proposal is that banks cannot charge interest only on citizens' deficits. It's time for the Knesset to approve a law that sends a message that the banks' profiteering needs to stop. It's time to address the lack of competition and the creation of private capital from the public's money. This is the first law in a series of bills that will put the banks in their place.".
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MK Nitzan Horwitz: "Banks have no problem charging exorbitant interest rates, and in contrast, they don't give us a penny for our money that's sitting in the banks, and that's where they make their profits.".
39 MKs supported the proposal, with no opponents. The proposal will be forwarded to the Economics Committee for preparation for first reading.
