Does the class action settlement over early repayment fees apply to car loans?

No. The claim concerned mortgages, and the Banking Order (Early Repayment of a Housing Loan), 2002, applies only to a loan to buy a home or secured by a mortgage on a home. The settlement money goes to the class action fund, not to customers.

Can a Mizrahi Tefahot Leasing car loan be repaid early?

Under the agreement in the file described in this article, yes. Section 3.1 allows early repayment on written notice at least 10 business days before the repayment date. Send the request in writing, ask for a dated payoff letter, and keep a copy and proof of sending.

What fees apply to early repayment of a loan that is not a mortgage?

For banks, the matter is governed by Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 454 of the Bank of Israel. According to the explanation sheets the banks publish, the possible fees are an operational fee, a fee for notice of less than 10 days, a discounting difference fee, and for CPI-linked loans an index loss fee. The agreement in this article says the Bank of Israel directives apply "insofar as they apply to the company".

What can you do when the bank does not answer a payoff request?

Send a written request to the lender’s address in the agreement and to its current address, and ask for a final payoff amount and date. Keep every request, reply and call with its date. If the lender is a banking corporation, you can turn to the Public Enquiries Unit of the Banking Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel. In the file described here, the April 2024 emails are what show that the customer asked to pay off.

Complaints against Bank Mizrahi Tefahot: about 28% upheld in 2023, and the bank links the rise to the Igud merger

In short: In 2023 about 28% of the complaints handled by Bank Mizrahi Tefahot's public enquiries unit were found justified. The bank itself wrote this in its 2023 corporate responsibility report, adding that the rise was affected "also by the merger process with Bank Igud, mainly enquiries from Igud customers whose account transfer was not completed" (translated from Hebrew). A year earlier the rate was about 20%. The 2024 public enquiries report no longer has any category mentioning Igud.

What the 2023 report says

On page 93 of Mizrahi Tefahot's 2023 corporate responsibility report, in the section "Complaint findings in 2023", the bank writes:

"In 2023 the rate of complaints found justified was about 28% at Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot and about 11% at Bank Yahav [...] The rise in the rate of justified complaints at Mizrahi-Tefahot is affected also by the merger process with Bank Igud, mainly enquiries from Igud customers whose account transfer was not completed." (translated)

A footnote adds: "When weighting includes enquiries concerning the Igud merger that were classified more strictly, the rate of justified enquiries is 25%." In other words, the bank gives two figures, 28% and 25%, depending on how merger enquiries are classified.

The same page has a table of upheld complaints by topic. These are Mizrahi Tefahot's 2023 figures:

Topic	Share of all complaints	Share upheld
Payment methods	13%	31%
Credit (non-housing)	14%	31%
Service quality	14%	29%
Current account (incl. overdraft)	14%	29%
Housing credit	16%	21%
Other	11%	50%
Dormant account	0.1%	75%

Under "Other", one complaint in two was upheld. In the bank's public enquiries report for the same year, merger complaints were filed under the heading "Other (including the Igud merger)".

Three years in numbers

Year	What the bank reported
2022	615 complaints under "Other (Igud merger)", 14.22% of complaints. Upheld rate: about 20% at Mizrahi Tefahot.
2023	540 complaints under "Other (including the Igud merger)", 11% of enquiries. 4,623 complaints and 626 requests received. Upheld rate: about 28% (25% under the stricter weighting).
2024	3,424 complaints and 271 requests received. "Other": 0 complaints. No mention of Igud or the merger.

The reports do not use the same unit every year. The 2023 corporate responsibility report, for example, says 6,724 enquiries were handled and lists 5,000 complaints at Mizrahi Tefahot, while the public enquiries report for the same year lists 4,623 complaints received and 4,981 handled. One report counts enquiries received, another counts enquiries handled, and some include Bank Yahav. So each figure in the table is given according to its own source.

What this means for former Igud customers

The report does not identify customers or explain what happened to any particular account. It does testify about the bank itself: a considerable number of Igud customers complained because their account transfer was not completed, and in many cases the complaint was upheld.

Igud Leasing customers followed a similar path. According to Bank Igud's final report, from 1 November 2022 Mizrahi Tefahot provided computer services to the subsidiary Igud Leasing. On 1 January 2023 the company changed its name to Mizrahi Tefahot Leasing Ltd., keeping the same company number. A customer whose car loan was taken with Igud Leasing deals today with Mizrahi Tefahot Leasing. See Igud Leasing: what happened to customers after the merger.

In the file of one Mizrahi Tefahot Leasing customer, described in earlier articles, the customer wrote in April 2024 that at the bank branch "they could not locate where the loan is". The reports do not prove that his case is one of those the bank describes. They show that the bank itself knew of a problem with transferring Igud customers' accounts, and acknowledged it in an official report.

What to ask the bank for

If your account or loan came from Igud: the account or loan number in both systems, the transfer date, and the balances before and after the transfer.
If you complained about the merger: the bank's written answer and, if the complaint was upheld, what was corrected.
If collection proceedings are being run against you for a debt from the Igud period: a full ledger from the day the loan was taken, not only from the day it was passed to legal handling.

If the bank's answer is not satisfactory, you can turn to the Public Enquiries unit of the Banking Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel. See the guide to complaining about Mizrahi Tefahot.

Questions and answers

How many complaints against Bank Mizrahi Tefahot were upheld in 2023?

According to the bank's 2023 corporate responsibility report, about 28%. Under the weighting in which merger enquiries were classified more strictly, 25%. At Bank Yahav, included in the same report, about 11%.

Why did the upheld rate rise?

According to the bank, the rise was affected "also by the merger process with Bank Igud, mainly enquiries from Igud customers whose account transfer was not completed".

Are there still complaints about the Igud merger?

The 2024 public enquiries report has no category mentioning Igud, and "Other" shows 0 complaints. That does not mean every problem was solved. It only means the bank no longer reports them separately.

How do I complain about Bank Mizrahi Tefahot?

First to the bank's public enquiries unit. If the answer is not satisfactory, to the Public Enquiries unit of the Banking Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel, attaching the bank's answer.

Sources (in Hebrew)

Mizrahi Tefahot corporate responsibility report 2023, pp. 92 to 93.
Mizrahi Tefahot public enquiries report 2023.
Mizrahi Tefahot public enquiries report 2024.
Mizrahi Tefahot public enquiries report 2022 and the 2022 corporate responsibility report, pp. 53 and 55.
Bank Igud financial reports, final report as of 29.12.2022.