Citing “political ferment in Israel”, British Barclays Bank refused to honor a check made out by an Israeli company, and drawn on its account with at First International Bank in Tel Aviv.
Barclays Bank’s international retail department in Liverpool notified its customer in Britain who received the check from an Israeli company that it was debiting his account for the sum made out in the check.
Barclays Bank’s documents state, “The check was returned due to inability to receive checks drawing on Israeli accounts. Unfortunately, due to the political ferment in Israel, we are unable to receive such checks at this time.”
According to the man who wrote the check, the owner of an import company, the check was for about 15,000 pounds sterling sent to the British supplier for goods bought as part of a regular business procedure that has been going on for more than a decade.
”Each month I send similar First International Bank checks that he deposits with Barclays without any problems. This is the first time I’ve run into such a reaction,” he said.
Israel’s major banks today said that they have not encountered similar cases – neither with Barclays nor with other banks with which they regularly work.
First International Bank said in response that this is an isolated incident, and that it conducts regular working relations with Barclays and with many other banks around the world, and has up until now not run into such a reaction.
It should be noted that, before deciding not to honor the check, the British bank did not run a background check on the Israeli check-writer, which means that the decision has nothing to do with his financial situation.
At web-posting time, there was no comment from Barclays Bank.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 13 December, 2000