NOVANEWS
A startling conversation with a representative of Bank Mizrahi Tefahot in Kiryat Shmona sheds light on the obstacles faced by non-Jewish clientele.
Haaretz
Mizrahi Tefahot Bank’s new ad campaign “From Dan to Eilat” has been hard to miss since taking to the airwaves several weeks ago. With a life preserver around his neck, actor Dvir Benedik climbs aboard his sidecar-equipped motorcycle along with his dog Rambo, and the pair sets out to solve a riddle: Why don’t people switch banks?
As Mizrahi’s pitchman, Benedik has been telling us to switch banks for four years now. But it turns out that despite his cross-country expeditions, Mizrahi has been systematically skipping entire sections of Israel – particularly areas inhabited by Arabs. It also turns out that the bank’s doors aren’t actually wide open to all Israelis.
In early 2012 several Mizrahi call center reps referred Arabs looking to open an account to the branch in Kiryat Shmona. After a while the officer at the branch in charge of recruiting new clients – we’ll call her “L.” – phoned the call center with a request: Stop sending us Arab customers or you’ll receive a “negative denial.”
What she meant was the referral of a client to a branch that didn’t result in an account being opened, something that would appear as a black mark on the rep’s record. L. knew that under Israeli law a client asking to open an account can’t be turned down, so she instructed phone reps to convince Arab callers to drop the idea – mainly by making it clear that the bank doesn’t provide credit at the time a new client opens an account, but only after several months have passed. A phone conversation between L and the call center that reached Haaretz reveals what occurred at the branch.
L.: So, about the cousins – do you know what “cousins” are?
G., the call center represenative: No, I don’t know. What does it mean?
L.: The…Arabs. Arabs, Druze…whatever you call them. We don’t provide credit immediately, only after half a year; between four to five months…
G.: Let’s say a client is in the best economic shape, by definition because he’s Arab then that’s how it is?
L.: A new account, a new account! You offer him all sorts of things. So don’t offer. Tell him, pay a visit if you really want. Say that we don’t give it right away – only in four to five months. I closed three of your referrals.
G.: But what’s the deal? Another customer is great and an Arab isn’t?
L.:I don’t want…I, I can’t say it on the phone, but I’m telling you so you can understand between the lines. There are things that go unsaid, but I’m sorry, that’s simply how it works at this bank, at our branch. There are no authorizations here. They aren’t given immediately, only after five months. Why? Because they live in villages across the line [1967 borders]:It’s Mas’ade [in the Golan] it’s Ashar [apparently, a mistaken reference to Ghajar, part of which is in Lebanon] … We’re afraid of giving here at the branch, because there’s been bad experience with these people, you understand? That they took the money and ran off, and we have a new manager and deputy manager here who aren’t willing to do
it.
G.: And if he’s from a village that isn’t within those lines, is it okay?
L.: No. I’m telling you again, no. No. No go. If you want to make an effort, don’t make it on the cousins, okay? I’m telling you so you’ll simply understand, because it would be a pity if I close on a negative.
G.: The truth is I’ve been having a very hard time with what you’re saying. If you were talking specifically about Mas’ade or a certain village you would be making a logical argument.
No logical argument
L.: There is no logical argument – it’s the argument of this branch. I’m explaining to you so you won’t have a bunch of turndowns.
G.:I don’t care about the turndowns. You’re saying something that’s hard to listen to.
L.:I know it’s hard, but that’s how it works at this branch. It always has been that way.
G.: Then alright, I’ll do my job and I’ll refer anyone who’s a good client, and you decide whether to close him.
L.: No problem. But you should know they’re very angry at me. [They say] ‘Why do they promise me something at the call center…’
G.:I don’t promise anyone anything. For everything, I say it is [contingent] on the branch’s approval. But if there’s a good client, I’ll send him, I won’t say … unless you say living in a certain village, then it’s logical. Beyond that I can’t understand.L.: There’s no problem. I’m just telling you our side. We don’t provide credit immediately. There were two here yesterday. One left upset. He wants to sue me personally and the bank [for credit] that I’m not ready to give him, and why did they promise him and he isn’t getting. We’ll get a lawsuit here…We’ll certainly receive something from the Bank of Israel. The other one was angry and I managed to calm him down, but he’ll wait five months with the expectation that he’ll receive it. I want to minimize damage at the outset so that’s what I say. Because it’s an instruction from above, from the highest place in the branch, that we don’t give them – perhaps after five months, half a year. If they execute a
standing order to save NIS 1,000 to NIS 1,500 [a month] maybe they’ll think about it, about some small credit of NIS 3,000 – even an eight or nine (thousand shekel) credit line. That’s about the size of it. You simply need to understand, if they don’t have collateral then there’s nothing.
L.:I’m really sorry. It’s terribly important for me to explain to you that I very much want to recruit clients. It’s my job at the branch. I want to help everyone walking in, and it’s important for the other side working with me to understand me. It comes from a good place, not a bad place…
