One Zero CEO: Bank account abuse is easily solved

Eyal Gafni, who recently became the CEO of Digital Bank One Zero, is trying to get out of the market share of veteran banks in Israel. He told the “Globes” correspondent Stenlicht at the “Going Long On ISRAEL” conference on the performance of the new bank. “One in three new accounts that were opened in a bank today with us.”

Jafni says that competition buds are also expressed by investors. “Until a year or two, 90 % of the stockpiles have been held with traditional banks. Today, this change has started. Today, about 30 % of the new portfolios are opened outside (traditional). We asked ourselves about the reason for people continuing to invest through traditional banks, when they know that they are expensive expensive, with crazy fees and foreign exchange rates.

“In the end, there are some things the customer taught. Where is it comfortable and available, which is the safe place, and for most customers, the answer to the confidence question is banks. Through one zero, the option of doing this without paying all the old fees.”

When asked if the customers of the digital bank were mainly young, Gafni replied: “The age group is mostly 35-55, so it's not necessarily young. We see that the vast majority of customers are men.”

When asked about the profits of the huge Israeli banks, which reach tens of billions of shekels, and the need to improve competition in the industry, Jafni replied, “We see the huge profits and gap that I always notice is that everyone in the audience may think they do not pay anything to their bank. Then you should ask, who are all these people who pay all money?”

He continued, “In the past year or two, about 9 % of the deposits that were added to the banking system with us.” He also explained, “We offer customers to close the money in the current account in a deposit, and receive a return of 4 % on it, for example, even if that means paying a higher interest rate.”

Using the current account can be resolved easily

“Using the current account use” – this is how Gafni describes the position of the ongoing account of the account, which is appropriate for banks to keep the public's money to verify accounts without a zero return. “The story of the misuse of the current account can be resolved easily. Without being demagoga, I will say that it is ultimately a story of awareness and alternatives. All that is required is to inform customers of their options.

“We teach customers constantly when they have an extra balance in their current account, when it is higher than a certain amount, and we also inform them of what is happening in the opposite direction, before they go to the open clouds.”

Jafni was asked his opinion on open banking reform. “In my opinion, this is a magic matter. This means that each of us, as a bank customer, is responsible for our information and can take it with us in our pocket and provide access to this information to anyone we want. Therefore, in the banking system, there are only a few hundred open bank adoption. But in one zero, it is not like that.

“More than 20 % of customers link credit cards and other bank accounts to one zero and see all their money in one place. In this way, they get visions that tell them when it is good to transfer money and where the Bank of Israel also needs to make efforts to understand that this gives customers a lot of strength.”

The conference will be held in cooperation with Cliving Insurance and is sponsored by One Zero Bank and Ratio Energies.

It was published by Globes, Israel Business News – En.globes.co.il – on March 24, 2025.

© Copy Publish Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. , 2025.