The Supervisor of Banks in Israel, Dr. Yitzhak Tal, has announced that
he will allow banks to expand the kinds of services they provide via the
Internet, as well as allow customers to carry out banking transactions
on the Internet.
In 1997, Tal allowed the banks to provide
account information via the Internet and today all the major Israeli
banks provide bank account information via their Web sites. Customers
requesting this service are provided with a user name and password. To
date, 55,000 customers are getting account information via the Internet
from Israeli banks.
Because the former service has been so successful, Tal has now decided to allow customers to perform other banking services
through the Internet, such as buying and selling securities, transfer of
funds from an open to a short-term closed account, opening of savings
accounts and more. At this time however, banks can not allow customers
to transfer funds from one account to another or to pay bills through
the Internet, as there are still security risks involved in these
activities.
Tal said that expanding the kinds of
services provided via the Net will also increase the number of
customers who will sign up for Internet services, thus making bank services more efficient for both banks and their customers.
This approval of services is not automatic, and every bank will have to
present their systems for examination to the supervisor. The security
of their systems will be examined, and only when the bank receives all
the approvals will they be able to begin to offer their customers to
make banking transactions via the Internet. The banks themselves are in
preparedness and are only waiting for the approval of the supervisor.
