Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron at the Maariv/Maariv conference
Are you buying foreign currency through the bank's app or website? Are you sure this is the most convenient way, one that does not involve effort? It turns out that one moment of inattention can cost you a lot of money. Look what happened to Hayi Shlomov MTA, a client of the International Bank , who wanted to buy dollars and got into trouble.
On October 30, Shlomov entered the International's website and intended to purchase dollars worth approximately NIS 8,000. After he clicked on the "send" button, he realized that he had typed one unnecessary zero, and instead of 8,000, he had mistakenly typed 80,000 shekels by mistake.
"Within a second I canceled," he says, "and I was sure that the bank would immediately cancel the transaction. Suddenly I see that I was charged a fee of 1,600 shekels, an amount that seems exorbitant to me for a transaction that was canceled in a very short time. I wrote to my branch manager and asked for an explanation and was not answered. I turned to inquiries The bank's public, and after a month of waiting, they came back to me and said there was nothing they could do. If they had charged me NIS 200, I wouldn't have said a word, but NIS 1,600 for a minute's mistake seems excessive to me."
"When the operation was transferred and before it was approved by you," the bank wrote to Shlomov, "operation details were presented to you, including the amount of the purchase in foreign currency. It was also stated to you that your order will be recorded and after its approval it will not be possible to cancel it. Since you approved the execution of the purchase operation, and the operation Done, your account is debited in shekels and credited in foreign currency."
Yossi Frank, CEO of "Energy Finance for Risk Management" which deals in foreign currency trading, says that those who buy foreign exchange must exercise caution, otherwise they will pay a lot of money for such mistakes. "Foreign exchange transactions are carried out from moment to moment, without delay, and there is a gap between the buying rate and the selling rate that the bank has no control over.
"Not everyone gets a system for buying foreign exchange, because there is room for mistakes. There is also the standard buy. In any case, the warnings must appear during the buying process and must be taken seriously, therefore, technically the bank owes him nothing. The regulator only comes into play at large levels of damage. But if it is a customer that the bank wants to visit, he can go to meet him, because here he is talking about a small amount.
"In any case, you have to read all the fine print before making the purchase, the banking system is required to list the conditions in a prominent and clear manner, check the date, the amount and the recipient several times to make sure there are no mistakes, and only then approve."
Lomov did not receive the 1,600 shekels. The branch manager promised to give him and his daughter, who also has a bank account, 200 shekels for shopping. Up to this moment they have received nothing, except to learn a lesson that cost him a lot of money.
The International Bank responded: "Purchasing foreign currency is an action that cannot be canceled, something that is explicitly and emphatically stated at the stage of approving the action. The 'correction' of the operation done by the customer, by selling the foreign currency, is carried out at the selling rate, and the amount of NIS 1,500 is the rate difference - the difference between the buying rate and the selling rate, the difference that reflects, among other things, the bank's costs
.
Shlomov said about this that "the manager called and said it was a benefit not a gift worth NIS 200
.
After a while I asked one of the employees what she meant and he said he would give it to her and I haven't heard since. It is important for me to point out that in the letter I wrote to the public complaints department I stated that the employees at the branch are fine and I have no complaint against them."