The regulatory steps taken by the Bank of Israel helped to reduce the risk to which both borrowers and the banking system are exposed. Ultimately, the solution will need to come from bringing the supply of homes in line with the basic demand for housing services, and we must hope that the steps being taken by the Government in this area will bear fruit.
This initiative was meant to facilitate attraction of large amounts of low cost customer deposits that would in turn allow such institutions to increase their lending capacity and expand operations to meet the growing demand for housing.