Supervisor of Bank Yoav Lehman today distributed a letter to the banks, announcing the Bank of Israel’s plan to consider changes in the business hours for banking corporations. The Bank of Israel plans to extend hours from 3:00 PM at present to 6:00 or 7:00 PM.
The proper banking management order states that the deadline for conducting bank transactions is 3:00 PM. Transactions conducted after that time are counted as taking place on the following day.
The Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department said that this order was issued in 1991, and subsequent technological developments in the capital market and in banking have created various problems regarding business hours.
The committee for proper procedures will convene next week for its first discussion of the matter. The committee includes representatives of the banks and the Bank of Israel.
In addition, following consideration of the reform in the payments system in Israel, and in order to conform to the currently prevailing international standards, the Bank of Israel has set up a function for handling the payments system and for establishing a real time gross settlement (RTGS) system for immediate and final clearance of large payments.
The purpose of the RTGS system is to improve the transfer of payments between customers, by increasing their security, and through immediate implementation of payments.
This system is designed to operate later in the day. Ending business hours at 3:00 PM does not allow immediate and final clearance for transactions carried out later than that time, and the hours for operating the RTGS system will not be optimal, unless business hours are extended.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on March 9, 2004