Israeli Banks Face Fine up to NIS 290 million
Written by: Aaron Katsman | January 13, 2009
Apparently, colluding on prices doesn’t pay. Well it doesn’t pay if you happen to be an Israeli bank. Accused of colluding on bank fees, the Israeli Antitrust Authority is offering the banks a deal in which they will ‘only’ have to pay 290 million Shekel.
Banks like Hapoalim, Leumi, Discount have been accused of collusion, but interesting enough the charges never have been proven. According to Globes: “Kan said in March 2008 that she planned launching a civil suit against the five banks because they had been colluding on fees. Her decision was the result of a protracted criminal investigation by the antitrust authority, which suspected that the banks had fixed fees between them. By the end of the investigation, the authority had not succeeded in gathering enough evidence for use in a criminal trial and therefore, she decided to work on the civil level.”
Humm. The fact that they couldn’t prove collusion and now they are trying the civil level, stinks of a political witch hunt. The high bank fees and suspect service are well documented. But bad service is a far cry from collusion on fees. Why couldn’t the authority prove this?
Instead of trying to stick it to the banks in the form of an outrageous fine, why not allow for a few more banks to open and create some competition?
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