After twelve days of strike action at First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1;FTIN5), the bank's branches opened this morning, together with those of Bank Otzar Ha-Hayal and Bank Poalei Agudat Israel (PAGI). This followed yesterday's intervention by Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini.
In announcements in the press, First International's management apologized to its customers for the damage to them caused by the strike. All the bank's branches will be open on Friday and Sunday. The bank is concerned that disgruntled customers may be lost.
The bank announced an exemption from charges on all transactions via bank clerks in July, a move that will cost it about NIS 4 million, as well as higher interest rates on long-term deposits. Customers whose loans were repaid during the period of the strike causing them to go into overdraft will not be charged excess interest but only interest on the loan balance. Likewise, customers who went into overdraft because of computer generated transactions will not be charged interest, while customers with deposits that matured during the strike, leaving their money in non-interest bearing current accounts, will receive interest at the rate that applied to the deposit.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 15, 2010
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