Esh Bank Israel Ltd., the country’s second digital bank, co-led by Nir Zuk, the American-Israeli billionaire founder of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, Inc., will offer zero-fee accounts and equally share interest revenue with its depositing customers when it launches early next year.

Esh Bank, in 2022, was awarded the second license in three years by the Bank of Israel for the establishment of a new bank, in an effort to boost competition in the highly concentrated sector dominated by five traditional banks.

Since then, the digital bank has operated in stealth or pilot mode with invited customers for two years. Starting in early 2026, Esh is rolling out a soft, or limited, launch, offering existing account holders to invite new customers, its co-founder and group CEO Yuval Aloni said.

Aloni said that Esh will operate bank accounts completely free of charges for both retail customers and small businesses. The digital bank will have no physical branches and offer basic banking services, including credit provision, receiving and managing deposits, and current accounts, with none of the account, payment, statement, or other occasional or hidden fees that traditional banks charge.

In addition, Esh said it will share 50 percent of the interest revenue it generates from customer balances in their current accounts with depositors.

“What we are going to do is share 50% of the revenues that Esh bank makes from using [depositors’] money, while expenses are coming out of the bank’s remaining 50% share, instead of passing them on to the customer, which means that we must be extremely efficient........

© The Times of Israel