Bank account management costs jump to about 1,000 shekels per family
According to the Bank of Israel's annual report, the average cost of managing a current account and credit card in 2025 was 379 shekels. With an average of 2.6 accounts per household, the annual cost for a family reaches approximately 1,000 shekels.
The cost of managing a current account and holding a credit card in 2025 totaled an average of 379 shekels per account, according to the annual report of the Bank of Israel published yesterday. The calculation refers to a single current account, and since there are an average of 2.6 accounts per household, this means that the cost for a family amounts to about 1,000 shekels. This figure reflects a jump back to the peak in these fees, which stood at 382 shekels per account in 2023.
In 2024, there was a significant decrease, but as it is now becoming clear, this was not due to an increase in competition in the concentrated industry, but as a result of the aid plan provided by the banks following the 'Iron Swords' war. Within this framework, an exemption from current account fees was granted to various population groups, including reservists, bereaved families, families of hostages, and evacuated residents.
Out of the average cost of a current account, the highest cost — 150 shekels per year — is for credit card fees. The ratio of the number of credit cards to each current account continued to grow and climbed to 1.9 cards per account, compared to 1.7 cards in 2021. The increase is mainly due to the activities of various clubs, which in cooperation with credit card companies offer various benefits, but the exemption from card fees is usually temporary, and the result is an increase in the total card fees that each household pays. In addition, households paid about 140 shekels per year for current account operations, such as bank transfers and check deposits.
The Bank of Israel hopes to see both figures — credit card fees and current account operation fees — decrease starting next year: in a reform published about a month ago that will come into effect in several stages, debit card fees will be reduced to 7 shekels starting this October, and for every current account, the maximum cost for 100 operations will be 10 shekels, meaning 120 shekels per year.
The bonanza in securities fees
In total, banks enjoyed an income of 5.7 billion shekels from household and small business fees in 2025 compared to 5.4 billion shekels in 2024. The most significant part — about a third of total fees — comes from securities trading activity. This is a figure that is constantly rising: last year it stood at 31% of total fees and in 2023 at 27%.
Securities trading fees are considered particularly profitable for banks: the price gaps between trading through large banks and trading through investment houses can amount to hundreds of percent and reach thousands of shekels per year. Here too, the Bank of Israel is promoting a reform together with the Israel Securities Authority, with the aim of making the fee structure more transparent. But unlike the reform in current account fees, here the implementation is more complex and is expected to take several years.
In the meantime, banks are trying to find the minimum point that will prevent the loss of customers — especially young ones — to investment houses. Within this framework, they offer various temporary benefits, so it is possible that the 2026 data will reflect a turning point in the volume of fees that banks charge for trading. After securities trading fees, current account fees (20%) and credit card fees (19%) are the two other significant types of fees. 13% of fees are for taking out credit, similar to their rate in the corresponding period, and 7% of fees are from foreign currency conversion, similar to the previous two years. This is an area where foreign currency wallets and non-bank credit cards — which sometimes offer cheap conversion fees, as well as the digital bank 'One Zero', which offers an exemption from fees in premium plans — are succeeding in biting into the banks' share.
15% of customers in plans
Until the reform in current account fees comes into effect, all banks are required to offer a basic current account fee plan, at a cost of up to 10 shekels per month, for one operation with a clerk per month and 10 operations via direct channels. In practice, only about 15% of bank customers joined the basic or expanded plan. Those who performed these operations without a plan actually paid 15.8 shekels at Mercantile Bank and 13.1 shekels at Mizrahi-Tefahot.
Banks are required to offer an expanded fee plan as well, where it is possible to perform up to 50 operations via a direct channel and up to 10 operations via a clerk, at a total cost of between 20 and 30 shekels per month. For those who did not join a plan, the actual cost was the highest at Mercantile Bank — 98 shekels — followed by Mizrahi-Tefahot — 81 shekels. Only 15% of bank customers have joined plans so far, and 62% of bank customers paid up to 10 shekels per month — that is, less than the cost of the basic plan. About 22% of bank customers paid more than 10 shekels per month but did not join plans.
