Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bethel Finance: Fischer, Steinitz appoint banking competitiveness c'ttee

www.bethelfinance.com

Bethel Finance news:
Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz today appointed an inter-ministerial team to examine increased competition in the banking sector headed by Supervisor of Banks David Zaken. The team will have members from the Bank of Israel, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, the National Economics Council, and the Antitrust Authority.

The team will review and recommend measures to improve competition in the banking industry in the retail and small business sectors. It will submit its report in 120 days.

The committee is one of the recommendations of the Trajtenberg report on the cost of living and key industries, including banking. The Trajtenberg committee raised concerns that over-concentration in the banking industry was liable to affect competition and result in prices higher than the competitive price in various business segments. Other issues include the complexity of banking products, the difficulty in obtaining comparative information by customers, and asymmetry between the banks for customers' credit ratings, which are liable to reduce competitive power between the banks.

The committee will recommend measures to simplify banking products, strengthen customers' bargaining power, and improve credit data services to households and small business and make them more sophisticated. The measures aim to improve the position of depositors and the economy in general, while not undermining the banking system's soundness.

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