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Reform of Israel's payment and settlement systems |
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Over the last three years the Bank of Israel, together with the commercial banks, the paper-based clearing house (known as the Bank Clearing House or simply BCH), the banks' automated clearing house (ACH) (or Masav, its Hebrew acronym), and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) clearing house, has been promoting a comprehensive reform of the payment and settlement systems in Israel. The essence of the reform is the establishment of an advanced, efficient Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, to be known by its Hebrew acronym ZAHAV, which became operational in July 2007. The new system acts as an intraday settlement system where all payments are carried out in real time, resulting in immediate and final settlement. The basic principles of the system and its operating method are detailed below. In the first stage, payment and settlement instructions in Zahav were restricted to those initiated by the Bank of Israel, the banks, the clearing houses and the Postal Bank; since 3 September 2007 the Zahav system has been available to the public via the banks.
Together with the establishment of the Zahav system, the Bank of Israel introduced a series of other changes and improvements into the existing payment systems, bringing them into line with accepted international standards. The need for the reform, and the Bank of Israel's deep involvement in its formulation and operation, stemmed from the great importance of the payment and settlement systems to financial stability and the entire economy. Unreliable payment systems can expose participants in the payment & settlement process to a number of risks that could lead to the development of systemic risk to the whole economy.
 Operating Days of ZAHAV System - 2009
Operating Days of ZAHAV System - 2010 
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