The Committee to examine competition in the credit market published its first periodic report today (Tuesday). The report focuses on describing the process and progress of measures to remove entry barriers for new credit suppliers and the transition of customers between credit providers. These actions are further measures in increasing competition.
The Committee’s role is to monitor the implementation of the law and to recommend measures to improve and increase competition in the credit market, to periodically examine the state of competition in the credit market and find barriers to the development of such competition, and to make recommendations to the Minister of Finance and the Bank of Israel Governor regarding the use of their powers to change the law’s definition of a bank with a large volume of activity.
The Committee is chaired by the Director General of the Ministry of Finance and
the Director of the Bank of Israel Research Department, and its members come
from the Banking Supervision Department, the Director of Budgets at the
Ministry of Finance, the Commissioner of Capital Markets, Insurance and
Savings, the Anti-Trust Commissioner, and the Head of the Payment Systems
Department at the Bank of Israel.
Ministry of Finance Director General Shai Babad said, “The Committee is doing wide-ranging work to ensure increased competition in the banking market. The report being published today shows the important measures taken by the regulators for that purpose. We will continue to monitor additional solutions that will lead to increased competition.”
Bank of Israel Research Department Director Prof. Michel Strawczynski said, “The report indicates significant progress in regulatory activity to remove barriers, which is a necessary condition for increased competition. The Committee will continue monitoring developments, collecting the required information to quantitatively measure the effect of the changes and the extent of increased competition in the credit market, and reporting its findings to the public, the government and the Knesset.”