Banking & Finance Q&A

If no continuing power of attorney was signed while your parent still had capacity, the only route is a guardianship order. Section 33(a)(4) of the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law 5722-1962 lets the Family Court appoint a guardian for a person who cannot, permanently or temporarily, look after their affairs and has nobody authorised to do so. A child living abroad can be appointed, and Section 35 directs the court to appoint whoever is most suitable in the circumstances. Once appointed, Section 51 requires an inventory of the ward's assets and debts to be filed with the Administrator General within 30 days.

A little, and not where it hurts most. The reform replaces the current-account fee basket with a bundled payment account management service capped at NIS 10 a month for 100 transactions, NIS 5 for a near-dormant account, NIS 1 per transaction beyond 100, and NIS 7 a month for a debit card. Debit card caps take effect in October 2026 and the full basket becomes mandatory by July 2027. The charges that dominate a non-resident's costs, foreign transfer commissions and the currency conversion spread, sit outside it.

It can, and since February 2025 the regulator has expressly permitted it for non-residents. On 13 February 2025 the Israel Securities Authority published a directive letting licensed payment companies discharge their anti-money-laundering identification obligations through online identification technology, either video conference or visual identification, without a physical meeting. The directive includes a specific permission to identify a service recipient who is not an Israeli resident, subject to heightened controls. A payment account is not a bank account, and that difference matters.

There are two steps and they run in order. First the bank's own ombudsman, who must answer you within 45 days under Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 308A. Then the Public Enquiries Unit of the Banking Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel, which investigates under Section 16 of the Banking (Service to Customer) Law 5741-1981, costs nothing, and can direct the bank to rectify what it finds. What it cannot do is award you money.

They can, if enough other holders accept. Under the tender offer provisions in Sections 336 to 340 of the Companies Law 5759-1999, a full tender offer that is accepted by holders of at least 95% of the shares carries the remaining shares compulsorily, and below that threshold the bidder cannot cross 90%. If you are squeezed out you have an appraisal remedy for six months, unless the offer validly required tendering holders to waive it.

It grows under the Adjudication of Interest and Linkage Law 5721-1961, at rates the Accountant General republishes every quarter. For the quarter beginning 1 April 2026 shekel interest ran at 5.92% a year, linked interest at 4.27% and late-payment charges at 4.96%. A debt expressed in dollars is converted into shekels at the Bank of Israel representative rate on the date interest starts to run, so your currency risk stops on that date and does not follow the dollar afterwards.

Three things at once, and none of them is getting a new number. The Israeli identity number is permanent and cannot be reissued, so the fix is to make it unusable to the impostor: a police complaint under Section 441 of the Penal Code 5737-1977, which carries three years for impersonation with intent to defraud and five where the impersonation is of a person entitled to property, written notice to each institution, and a pull of your credit data register file at the Bank of Israel.

Two things, and one of them is urgent. Section 31 of the Insurance Contract Law 5741-1981 gives a three-year limitation period that runs from the insured event, meaning the date of death, not from the day you discovered the policy existed, so heirs abroad routinely lose good claims by waiting. The free route is a complaint to the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority, which reviews the refusal and can force the insurer's hand. Section 27 obliges the insurer to pay within 30 days of receiving the documents it needs.

Yes, and a foreign individual may be the registered secured creditor. Section 4 of the Pledge Law 5727-1967 makes a pledge effective against third parties only if the asset is delivered to the creditor or the pledge is registered with the Registrar of Pledges, where the registration fee is around NIS 170. If the borrower is an Israeli company, Sections 178 and 179 of the Companies Ordinance add a separate filing with the Companies Registrar within 21 days, failing which the charge is void against a liquidator and other creditors.

A heter iska is a rabbinic document that recasts a loan as a joint venture so the bank's return counts as profit rather than interest under Jewish law. It changes the religious characterisation, not your civil liability: an Israeli court still treats the facility as a loan, and the Fair Credit Law 5753-1993 still applies, capping the cost of credit under Section 5 at the Bank of Israel rate plus 15 percentage points, which at the 3.5% rate set in July 2026 means 18.5% a year. Watch the clause inside it that sends disputes to a rabbinical court, because that one has real procedural consequences for a borrower abroad.

Yes, and not only for family peace. Section 2 of the Fair Credit Law 5753-1993 requires a loan to be in writing with the borrower's express, documented consent, and a lender who cannot produce that document struggles to enforce anything. Section 5 caps the total cost of credit at the Bank of Israel rate plus 15 percentage points, which is 18.5% a year at the 3.5% rate set in July 2026. Without a written instrument the Israel Tax Authority and the receiving Israeli bank are both entitled to read the transfer as a gift, and the CRA will still expect the arrangement declared.

An Israeli account is restricted for one year once ten cheques have been returned for want of cover within twelve months, with at least fifteen days between the first and the last. The restriction attaches to you personally, so every account you hold at every Israeli bank freezes for cheque purposes, and a second restriction within three years makes you a severely restricted customer for two years. The only judicial route is a Section 10 appeal to the Magistrates Court nearest the drawee branch, and it can strike individual cheques from the count rather than cancel the restriction outright.