Financial Services Supervision Law (Insurance), 5741-1981
חוק הפיקוח על שירותים פיננסיים (ביטוח), תשמ"א-1981
Published: 1981-04-23Consolidated Hebrew text as of 2026-07-26 · Last amended 2026-07-22✓ Amendment status checked against the Knesset legislation record on 2026-09-29
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Unofficial English translation — for reference only. It may contain errors or omissions and cannot be relied on as a legal text. Only the Hebrew text published in Reshumot is legally binding.More
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The Hebrew text as published in Reshumot (ספר החוקים) and on the Knesset website is the sole authoritative and legally binding version. In any discrepancy, the Hebrew text prevails.
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Section C: Separation of Life Insurance Business
Separation of Accounts and Assets§
54.
(a)An insurer licensed to carry on life insurance business shall maintain a separate system of accounts in respect of that business, hold separate assets to cover its liabilities in life insurance, and effect separate reinsurance for that business.
(b)Assets and rights held to cover an insurer's liabilities in life insurance and the reinsurance of those liabilities shall serve to cover the insurer's liabilities in life insurance; assets remaining after the discharge of all the insurer's liabilities in life insurance shall serve to cover other liabilities of the insurer.
(c)The provisions of subsection (b) shall apply also in execution proceedings against an insurer and in winding-up proceedings of an insurer.
(d)The Commissioner, after consulting the Committee, may issue directions regarding the manner of separation of accounts and assets.
(e)In this section, "life insurance" – insurance in which the insured event is the death of the insured or of another person, or their reaching a certain age, or another event in their lives, including accident, illness and disability insurance that forms part of a life insurance policy or constitutes a permanent addition thereto.
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Contact Us →Chapter V: Protection of Policyholders' Interests
Prohibition of Misleading Description§
55.
(a)An insurer or insurance agent shall not give a misleading description of an insurance transaction presented to a particular customer, and shall not include a misleading description in a publication to the public.
(b)For this purpose, "misleading description" – a description given orally, in writing or in print, which is capable of misleading in a material respect in the transaction; without derogating from the generality of the foregoing, the following matters shall be regarded as material in the transaction:
(1)the name of the insurer or agent, their tenure, distinction, goodwill, financial position and the scope of their business;
(2)the nature of the insurance transaction, the scope of the insurance cover, the exclusions therefrom and the conditions precedent to its existence;
(3)the duration of the insurance period and the possibilities available to the insured or the insurer to terminate it;
(4)the insurance premiums and other payments that the insured must pay, including the maximum insurance premiums permitted by law and the rate of interest on credit granted for their payment, calculated on an annual basis;
(5)the insurance premiums in comparison with the ordinary or customary premiums, or those previously charged, in respect of the same insurer and in respect of other insurers;
(6)the conformity of the policy conditions with the conditions prescribed or approved by law or with the conditions set out in a specimen specified;
(7)an opinion given by a person in respect of the transaction or in respect of the insurer.
(c)It shall be a good defence for an insurance agent who gave a misleading description that in doing so the agent relied on a written description provided by an insurer, and the agent did not know and could not have known that the description was misleading.
Liability for Misleading Description§
56.
Where a misleading description appeared in an advertisement of an insurer or of an insurance agent, the person in whose name the advertisement was made and the person who brought the matter to publication and thereby caused its publication shall be regarded as having misled; and if the publisher, editor, printer or the person who in practice decided on the publication of that advertisement knew that the advertisement was misleading, or if the advertisement is misleading on its face – those persons too shall be regarded as having misled.
Conditioning of Insurance§
57.
(a)An insurer or insurance agent shall not make insurance in a particular class conditional upon taking out insurance in another class, or upon the purchase of another service or asset from the insurer, the agent or another person designated by the insurer or agent, unless there is a reasonable business connection between the insurance sought and the fulfilment of the condition.
(b)Without derogating from other means of proof as to the reasonableness of such a connection, an insurer may notify the Commissioner of a business policy the insurer has established in respect of making the provision of insurance conditional upon a condition as referred to in subsection (a), and if the Commissioner, after consulting the Committee, approves that policy, a connection between the insurance sought and the fulfilment of the condition shall be regarded as a reasonable connection if it derives from that policy.
Prohibition of Harm in Special Circumstances§
58.
An insurer or insurance agent shall not do – by act or omission, in writing, orally or by any other means – anything that constitutes exploitation of the distress of an insured, the insured's intellectual or physical weakness, ignorance, lack of knowledge of the language or inexperience, or the exercise of undue influence upon the insured, all for the purpose of concluding an insurance transaction on unreasonable terms or of obtaining consideration in excess of the customary consideration.
Transaction at the Place of Residence or Work of the Insured§
59.
(a)An insurance agreement entered into through an insurance agent at the time the agent approached the insured at the insured's place of residence or work, without being invited to do so, may be cancelled by the insured within three business days of the date of its making.
(b)Where an insurance agreement is cancelled under subsection (a), the insurer shall return to the insured whatever was received under the agreement.
(c)An insurance agent who approached the insured as referred to in subsection (a) shall provide the insured with an explanation of the insured's rights under this section; the Commissioner may prescribe particulars to be included in the explanation and the manner of its delivery; such particulars shall be published in Reshumot (Official Gazette).
Action on Behalf of an Insurer§
59a.
The provisions of section 54 of the Provident Funds Supervision Law shall apply, with the necessary modifications, in respect of an action on behalf of an insurer for damage caused to assets managed by the insurer to cover yield-dependent liabilities, or for damage caused to insured persons under yield-dependent insurances.
Deferral of the Monthly Repayment Date of a Housing Loan in Special Circumstances§
59a1.
(a)An insurer that grants a customer a housing loan shall notify the customer, before the conclusion of the loan agreement, that the customer may include in the loan agreement provisions under which the customer may, upon request, defer the monthly repayment dates of the loan, subject to the conditions set by the insurer and subject to the following provisions:
(1)after the conclusion of the loan agreement, one of the following occurred and a document evidencing the same was presented to the insurer:
(a)the customer ceased employment in the year preceding the customer's request to defer the monthly repayment dates of the loan, and has not been working since;
(b)the customer fell ill or was injured and as a result is unfit to work for a continuous period exceeding three months;
(c)the customer gave birth, six months have not yet elapsed since the date of birth, and the customer is not working;
(2)a customer may defer repayment dates under this section for a period of the customer's choosing, not exceeding three months, not more than once in any 12 consecutive months, and not more than three times during the term of the housing loan.
(b)Without derogating from the provisions of any law, before the conclusion of the housing loan agreement, the insurer shall provide the customer with a written explanation of the conditions for deferral of the monthly repayment date of the loan under this section; that explanation shall set out, inter alia, the costs involved in the customer's choice to include in the agreement provisions regarding the option to defer the monthly repayment date of the loan as referred to in subsection (a), as well as the costs involved in the exercise of that option.
(c)The deferral of the monthly repayment date of a housing loan under this section shall not prejudice the rights available to the customer under the loan agreement or under any law, including the customer's rights to alternative housing or the customer's right to apply to the special committee under the provisions of section 5a of the Housing Loans Law, 5752-1992.
(d)The provisions of this section may not be derogated from except in favour of the customer.
(e)In this section, "housing loan" – a loan for the purpose of purchasing a sole apartment as defined in section 9a1(d) of the Banking (Customer Service) Law, 5741-1981.
Deferral of the Repayment Dates of a Housing Loan upon Death§
59a2.
(a)Where a customer who took out a housing loan from an insurer dies, the insurer shall, at the request of the person obligated to repay the loan (in this section – the debtor), defer the repayment dates of the loan for a period requested by the debtor, not exceeding 12 months from the date of death, provided that a death certificate is presented to the insurer.
(b)By reason of the deferral of the repayment dates of the loan in accordance with subsection (a), the insurer shall not collect any payment that would not have been required but for the deferral, including default interest for the period of deferral.
(c)Where the repayment dates of the housing loan have been deferred under the provisions of this section, the payments whose repayment date has been deferred shall be paid in one of the following manners, at the debtor's choice:
(1)at the end of the loan repayment period under the agreement, in periodic instalments equal in number to the number of dates deferred;
(2)in instalments to be added to the payments that the debtor is required to pay until the end of the repayment period.
(d)Where the insurer becomes aware of the death of a customer who took out a housing loan from the insurer, the insurer shall, in any letter or notice sent in connection with the debt or the outstanding balance of the loan, specify particulars of the debtor's rights under this section.
(e)The provisions of this section may not be derogated from except in favour of the debtor.
Limitation of Fee for Processing a Housing Loan Application§
59a3.
(a)For processing a housing loan application as defined in section 59a1(e), the insurer may charge a fee not exceeding NIS 360.
(b)The amount referred to in subsection (a) shall be updated on 1 January of each year (in this subsection – the update date), in accordance with the rate of change in the index known on the update date as compared with the index known on 1 January of the preceding year; the said amount shall be rounded to the nearest amount that is a multiple of NIS 10; for this purpose, "index" – the Consumer Price Index published by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Professional Human Response§
59b.
(a)An insurer that provides a telephone service incorporating an automated call-routing system shall provide a professional human response to a customer for at least the types of services listed below, after the option, if it exists, to select the language or geographical area in which the telephone service is to be provided:
(1)handling of a fault;
(2)account enquiry;
(3)termination of engagement.
(b)Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a), in a telephone service that incorporates a separate professional human response for services provided by an insurer, the insurer may allow the customer to select the type of service before the professional human response is given.
(c)The waiting time for receipt of a professional human response in the types of services listed in subsection (a) shall not exceed six minutes from the commencement of the call, and the customer shall not be directed to a message-leaving service unless the customer so chooses.
(d)
(1)Where the Commissioner has prescribed provisions regarding the waiting time for receipt of a professional human response, the Commissioner may direct that the insurer may deviate from the waiting time prescribed in subsection (c), in respect of the types of services listed in subsection (a), by a proportion of the total enquiries for a period prescribed by the Commissioner, or for a period of time prescribed by the Commissioner, in advance or after the fact;
(2)Where the Commissioner has so directed under paragraph (1), the Commissioner shall report to the Economics Committee of the Knesset on the provisions prescribed, on the compliance of insurers with those provisions, including the proportions of the total enquiries in which insurers met the prescribed period for providing a professional human response, broken down by the types of services in respect of which they are required to provide a professional human response; such a report shall be delivered during the three years from the date of entry into force of the provisions – once every six months, and after that period – once a year, and shall be published on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
(e)The provisions of this section shall not apply in the event of a general systemic fault in the provision of services by the insurer that prevents compliance with the provisions of this section, where the said fault occurred over at least a regional spread, including in a particular locality, provided that in an enquiry as aforesaid for the receipt of a professional human response, the insurer shall notify the customer, by a recorded message, of the area in which the fault exists and the estimated time for its rectification.
(f)Nothing in the provisions of this section shall derogate from provisions prescribed by law or by licence requiring the provision of a professional human response within a time shorter than the time prescribed in this section.
Investigation of Public Complaints§
60.
(a)The Commissioner shall investigate public complaints that the Commissioner considers to have substance, concerning an act of an insurer or of an insurance agent in insurance matters; in respect of complaints for discrimination on grounds of disability under Chapter V-A of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law, 5758-1998, the provisions of Section H of that Chapter shall also apply, and in other matters connected with their customers.
(b)The Commissioner shall not investigate a complaint in a matter in which proceedings before a court or arbitrator have commenced, or in which a court or arbitrator has decided, except for special reasons to be recorded; however, the Commissioner may investigate a complaint in a matter in which a claim has been filed before a court or arbitrator but proceedings have not yet commenced therein.
Manner of Investigation§
61.
(a)The investigation of a complaint shall be conducted in such manner as seems fit to the Commissioner, and the Commissioner shall not be bound by the provisions of procedure or the law of evidence.
(b)The Commissioner shall bring the complaint to the attention of the person against whom the complaint is made and shall give that person an adequate opportunity to respond to it.
Outcome of Investigation§
62.
(a)Where the Commissioner finds that the complaint was justified, the Commissioner shall notify the complainant and the person against whom the complaint was made accordingly; the Commissioner may set out in the response a summary of the Commissioner's findings and may direct the person against whom the complaint was made to rectify a deficiency revealed by the investigation, whether in the particular case that was the subject of the complaint or generally, in the manner and by the time directed.
(b)Where the Commissioner finds that the complaint is not justified, or that it does not merit investigation by the Commissioner, the Commissioner shall notify the complainant and the person against whom the complaint was made accordingly, and may set out in the response a summary of the Commissioner's findings.
(c)Where the investigation gives rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence has been committed, the Commissioner shall bring the matter to the attention of the Attorney General.
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