Bank Leumi logo
Checkbook-free future beckons as Israeli bank introduces digital checks
Sending and depositing checks may become entirely digitized if new feature becomes widely used, with several advantages over money transfers.
Bank Leumi will soon launch a new service allowing customers to write digital checks, following a move by several banks to permit depositing checks through a smartphone app.
The service would make the entire process of writing and depositing checks paperless.
Yedioth Ahronot was told that Bank Leumi recently requested approval for the service from the Bank of Israel.
Bank Leumi CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
The service will likely be initially limited to customers of the bank and an amount of up to NIS 10,000.
The service will be the first of its kind in Israel and the world, and while it has yet to receive the Bank of Israel's approval, it was announced to users of Bank Leumi's smartphone app in the latest update.
The customer will need to enter his details and identification when opening the app, then fill in the beneficiary details, payment amount, and date.
The app then sends a notification to the recipient that. The writer of the check will get a reminder four days before the date written on the check, and when the check is deposited.
The new feature is similar to money transfers between accounts, but there are essential differences: It does not require, for example, filling out the account details of the recipien. Furthermore, unlike a money transfer, a check can be withdrawn based on a future balance, even if there is an incorrect balance when it the check is transferred.
Also unlike a money transfer, a check is a written reference that could serve as a legal record if the check is not honored.
