The Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department today is launching a system that will enable bank customers to locate—easily and at no cost—bank accounts and deposits with no transactions, as well as deceased individuals’ accounts.
Supervisor of Banks Dr. Hedva Ber said, “There are sums of money belonging to many customers at the banks, without any transactions and times even without the customers’ knowledge. I invite the public to enter the “Money Mountain 2” website that we launched today, and to check if they have bank accounts or deposits with no transactions. The website makes important data accessible, in a clear and user-friendly manner, at no cost, and will help you to locate deposits and to manage them better.”
The Banking Supervision Department, with the collaboration of the Bank of Israel’s Information Technology Department and the Information Systems Division at the Ministry of Finance, is launching the “Money Mountain 2” website, which will allow bank customers to find banks in which inactive bank accounts and deposits belonging to the customer were held. The system will present those banks in which the customer has a current account or deposit, regarding which the bank was unable to contact the owners by up to two months after the redemption date. For a current account, the redemption date is at the end of ten months from the day the last instruction was received in the account.
With regard to locating the accounts of deceased individuals, this initiative will serve as an efficient tool for inheritors to locate such accounts, active or inactive, at no cost. Until now, inheritors were required to approach each bank to clarify if the deceased had an account at one of that bank’s branches; this involved considerable effort and financial costs.
As of today, there are approximately 480,000 inactive bank accounts and deposits of individuals, with a total value of approximately NIS 9 billion. Of those, there are 64,000 bank accounts of deceased individuals, with a total value of approximately NIS 1.3 billion.
It should also be noted that of the total bank accounts and deposits noted (480,000), approximately 60 percent of them have a balance of up to NIS 1,000 per deposit, and in 40 percent of them the balance is up to NIS 50.
It is important to emphasize that for protection of privacy of the customer and the information, the search results only indicate a list of banks in which there are inactive accounts/deposits. That is, the results do not show additional details regarding such accounts, such as account type, account number, or the existing balance. To clarify those details, contact the banks that appear on the list in response to the query, using the contact details on the site.
Attached is a file with Frequently Asked Questions on the Money Mountain 2 initiative and a link to an explanatory clip.
To locate inactive deposits and accounts of deceased individuals, go to the Money Mountain 2 website at https://itur.mof.gov.il .