A court has ordered the Postal Bank to accept a 200,000-shekel ($54,000) cash deposit from a woman in her 50s and to cover her legal expenses, ruling that the bank’s refusal to accept the money was unreasonable.
The court found that the woman, who has a permanent mental health disability, adequately explained the source of the funds, which she said she accumulated over several years by withdrawing her monthly disability payments in cash and storing them at home.
According to court filings, the woman is recognized by the National Insurance Institute as permanently disabled and has long received a monthly disability allowance of between 3,000 and 4,000 shekels, deposited monthly into her bank account. She said that due to her illness and fears that money held in her account could be stolen, she routinely withdrew the funds in cash shortly after they were deposited and kept the money at home without using it.
Family members later learned about the cash savings and encouraged her to redeposit the money. When she approached the Postal Bank, the bank refused, citing risk considerations and saying she could not provide sufficient documentation for the source of the funds.
In its defense, the bank argued that the refusal was reasonable under anti-money laundering regulations, which require financial institutions to examine the origin of funds before accepting large cash deposits. The bank said a deposit of that size was not typical for the woman’s account and that she was unable to provide direct proof of the source of the money.
The court rejected those arguments, ruling that the woman provided a consistent explanation for the origin of the funds and that the bank imposed unreasonable conditions by refusing the deposit outright without attempting to assess her claims through available review mechanisms.
The ruling said the bank failed to present any external indicators suggesting illegal activity, money laundering or terror financing. As a result, the court ordered the Postal Bank to accept the 200,000-shekel deposit and to pay the woman 16,000 shekels ($4,300) in legal costs.