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 03
Rails & infrastructure
The instant rail, the RTGS spine, the card switch, the direct-debit scheme, and the country's CBDC stance. Each rail is reported with operator, launch year, and 2024 flow so the relative scale across rails is readable at a glance.
CBDC status is deliberately granular: live, pilot, preparation, live stalled, and sceptical, no pilot are different things.
BOI is in the preparation phase per the SCHEMA-v3 CBDC taxonomy — preliminary design released March 2025, public consultation closed May 2025, project lead Yoav Soffer flagged a year-end 2026 hand-up to the Governor for the launch decision. Distinct from a pilot — no live infrastructure, but design and stakeholder work is well-advanced.
Instant payments
MASAV Faster Payments
The instant leg typically carries the vast majority of retail consumer flow in modern payment systems — and sits in direct tension with card networks and wallets for the same transactions.
- Operator
- MASAV (Israeli Inter-Bank Clearing House)
- Live since
- 2021-04-01
Transactions · 2024
transactions/year · 2024
Cleared value · 2024
ILS/year · 2024
Participating institutions
institutions · 2025
Rail features
- ▌5–7 second settlement
- ▌ISO 20022 messaging since 2023
- ▌Per-transaction cap ILS 50,000
- ▌Typically free for retail P2P below ILS 5,000
- ▌Bit and Pay route through MASAV
RTGS
Real-time gross settlement
The RTGS spine clears high-value interbank flow — including the settlement of the instant-rail cycles and card-network net positions. Transaction count is modest; cleared value is enormous.
Transactions · 2024
transactions/year · 2024
Cleared value · 2024
ILS/year · 2024
Open banking
Regulatory and technical posture
- Regime
- BOI Open Banking Standard (PSD2-influenced)
- Live Since
- 2022-01-01
Licensed Open Banking participants
institutions · Q1 2026
Full reference
Kpis
Ashrait ACH transactions
transactions/year · 2024— Handles direct-debit collections including utilities, telecoms and Bituach Leumi (social security) flows.
Cards in issue
cards · 2024— Cards per adult ~1.4; the three credit-card companies Isracard, CAL and Max issue most volume against the bank-issuing model elsewhere.