Complaints by the public against the banks rose by 8.1% in 2006, says the Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department Report on Bank-Customer Relations for 2006. There were 4,176 complaints against banks, up from 3,863 complaints in 2005. The main topics of the complaints were mortgages, the management of current accounts, checks, fees, and credit.
The report states that the proportion of complaints that the Banking Supervision Department handled in 2006, which were fully or partly justified, declined to 25.1% from 26.8% in 2005 and 26.4% in 2004. The banks paid 34,000 customers NIS 2.3 million in compensation on the handling of complaints in 2006. Bank Hapoalim (LSE: BKHD; TASE: POLI) was ordered to reimburse customers NIS 12.9 million for upward rounding of the LIBOR rate to the nearest one-eighth percentage point without due disclosure to customers.
Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) had the smallest proportion of justified complaints for the fourth consecutive year. 16.5% of complaints filed against the bank were found to be justified, compared with 16.1% in 2005. The bank’s credit card company, Leumi Card Ltd., was the best company with no justified complaints in 2006, compared with a 6.9% of complaints found to be justified in 2005.
27.4% of complaints against Bank Hapoalim were found to be justified in 2006, down from 30.3% in 2005. Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) had the highest proportion of justified complaints 31.1%, up from 27.9% in 2005; followed by Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), with a proportion of 31% of justified complaints in 2006 compared with 29% in 2005, and First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1;FTIN5), with 23.1% of justified complaints down from 25.4% in 2005.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 1, 2007
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