A new digital bank slated to open in Israel at the end of 2021 will be the first new bank to open in Israel in 43 years and will also be the first bank ever to allow US-Israeli citizens to open a bank account without having to physically show up at the bank.
US-Israeli dual citizens and for that matter any Israeli who holds additional tax residency will be able to receive credit facilities and full services in English, First Digital Bank told The Jerusalem Post in an interview published Wednesday.
https://en.digibank.co.il/
However, there are still some kinks to work out. For example, although the bank’s website provides an English-language gateway and even the articles on its blog are provided in English, the bank offers links to Hebrew-language sites.
The bank, already approved by Bank of Israel, was founded by Professor Amnon Shashua, the same successful businessperson who founded OrCam and Mobileye. The bank’s chairman is Shouky Oren, and its CEO is Gal Bar Dea. The chief financial and risk officer is Neta Avrahamov Bitan.
“In 2021 no one should spend half a day working on opening a bank account,” said Eric Chikotai, Vice President of Banking at First Digital Bank. “As a technology-based bank we have created an infrastructure that will allow any citizen to open a bank account easily and receive service anytime and anywhere.
“With our English-language app, we will remove barriers and make banking services accessible to the public,” Chikotai said.
Bank Leumi already provides a full menu of digital services to its customers, although the physical branches remain for specialized in-person services. Appointments are now required in advance at the Arad branch of Bank Leumi for service with a physical customer service representative; but in many cases during those appointments customers are taught by the representative how to access and use the digital services via the bank’s app on a smartphone and/or via the ATM outside the bank, 24/7.
First Digital Bank, however, will make history as a bank with no physical branches whatsoever, as well as offering 24-hour customer service via a call center and online chat.
It appears to be a bit of a takeoff from the Mountain View, California based PayPal company that officially launched in October 2000, providing customers with a “digital wallet” – a sparkling new concept at the time – but clearly is expanding beyond PayPal’s limited, albeit lucrative, services. Like PayPal, which today services more than 286 million active accounts, First Digital Bank is very likely to gain a mammoth customer base in very short order, especially from English speakers in Israel who are deeply familiar with the technology concept and who largely prefer doing business in their native tongue whenever possible.
Today PayPal services 286 million active accounts. In 2018, the company recorded 9.9 billion payments made on behalf of its customers and raked in more than $15 billion in revenue that year using 100 currencies in more than 200 world markets.
Three years from December 2021, what will the figures for First Digital Bank be?