Unlike the EU where digital banks can start in a small market and then expand by using their passporting rights a bank in Israel is constrained to a rather small market.
Did this improve a lot recently? Only 2 years ago, the Wall Street Journal described the inconvenience of Israeli banking this way:
> Banking occupies a special place among the complaints of Israelis. Banks refuse to give out the phone number of a designated representative. Most basic functions can be dealt with only in person at the branch where an account was opened.
> Tech workers - many of them American and European immigrants who came of age with mobile banking - can toil all day on some of the world's most advanced projects, only to find they can't email their bank any documents. Many Israeli banks demand documents in person, sent by mail or by fax.
> when [Aliza Landes, a] 35-year-old American-Israeli [,] recently tried to send money electronically to pay for her wedding dress, the experience was less than high tech. It took two hours on the phone, and then a trip to her bank branch, where employees manually added the send-money function to her app.
from https://archive.is/EongN / https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-the-hot-device-in-startup...
- i have a designated representative for 20 years or so (usually it happens when you have income above average I guess)
- most of functions I could do via web site for many-many years. probably also via mobile app.
- been emailing documents to my bank for 5 years at least
- can make either local same day transfers or international transfers online, forever.
with regards to "trip to branch where employees added send-money function to app", you need to sign agreement for performing operations online and stuff (probably part of regulations). till you do it, web banking is a bit limited. those days you can agree to it online i think
Can do almost anything on the web. Can even cash in checks by taking a picture of them on the app. Calling the central number for the bank directs the call automatically to my personal banker based on my caller ID. I haven't been to the branch in years.
Although it is true that when you _do_ need to go in, you need to go to your own branch, which is something that surprised me coming from the UK.
Doesn't feel like there's any real competition there - the other competitors (Pepper and Paybox) don't seem to leave a mark. Hapoalim is definitely leveraging their might for digital dominance.