Middle East · GDP rank #28

Israel

IL · ILS @ 0.3460/USD

Israel runs a card-mature, bank-dominated retail payments market with one wholesale rail (ZAHAV, the BOI-operated RTGS, fully on ISO 20022 since November 2025) and one retail-instant rail (MASAV Faster Payments) underneath the consumer-facing Bit (Bank Hapoalim) and Pay (Bank Leumi) wallets. Bit alone holds roughly half of P2P value across ~3.3m active users. The Capital Markets Authority issued the country's first shekel-pegged stablecoin authorisation in 2024 and the Bank of Israel's digital-shekel design work hands a launch recommendation to the Governor at end-2026.

Tab 05

Cross-border

Inbound and outbound remittance corridors, tourism flows, FX markup on retail cross-border, and the country's posture on stablecoin adoption. Corridor figures come from the World Bank RPW feed or the publishing central bank; both are cited when they disagree.

Remittance inflows

US$4.8B

USD · 2024

Remittance outflows

US$2.6B

USD · 2024

Inbound tourism spend

US$5.4B

USD · 2024

Outbound tourism spend

US$8.2B

USD · 2024

Avg. corridor cost

2.4%

% · Q4 2024

Net position

Net receiver

Top inbound corridors

United StatesUS$2.4B
via bank
FranceUS$0.42B
via bank
United KingdomUS$0.31B
via bank

Top outbound corridors

ThailandUS$0.18B
via MTO
PhilippinesUS$0.14B
via MTO

Cross-border card

Card flow leaving and arriving

Cards issued domestically and used abroad reflect outbound consumer travel and cross-border e-commerce; volume acquired from abroad reflects inbound tourism and foreign online shoppers.

Issued volume spent abroad

US$8.2B

USD/year · 2024

Acquired volume from abroad

US$5.4B

USD/year · 2024

FX cost

What consumers pay above the interbank

Retail FX markup is the spread between the mid-market rate and the rate the consumer receives — the single largest friction point in small-ticket cross-border.

FX regime: free-float
Reference: Shekel free-float; BOI reserves the right to intervene to smooth disorderly markets. Intervention rare since the 2022 post-conflict episode.

Source · Bank of Israel

FX markup not reported.

Full reference

Remittances

Net Position: receiver

Source:

Kpis

ILS trailing 12-month appreciation vs USD

% · May 2025 – May 2026

+20.6%

FX reserves

USD · Apr 2026

US$220B+