Tel-O-Fun bike rental scheme goes live

Starting this month you can now rent a bike in Tel Aviv just like in London or Paris. The Tel Aviv Municipality invested NIS 100 million ($25 million) in the so called Tel-O-Fun rent a bike scheme. More then 2,000 green bikes are now available throughout Tel Aviv in docking stations scattered around town. The system is very similar to the Vélib in Paris or the Barclays Cycle Hire in London. It works with credit cards or an electronic key and it's free for the first 30 minutes. Then from 31 minutes to 90 minutes you have to pay NIS 5 and for a full day, you will pay NIS 14. But docking the bike for just 10 minutes resets the clock allowing you in effect to go from place to place for free.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Economic Development Authority CEO Sharon Kenan explains that Tel-Ofan has begun with 40 stations and 450 subscribers, expanding daily to reach an eventual goal of 150 stations with up to 20 German-made bicycles each.

Kenan's staff worked on Tel-Ofan for three years before rolling it out. One of the trickiest operational details was how to make sure that when somebody comes to a station there will always be a bike available in good condition, and that the station of destination will always have a free docking place. That problem was tackled with the assistance of mathematicians at Tel Aviv University, who established formulas after researching typical bike-riding patterns in the city. Based on those formulas, trucks will patrol the rental stations on a regular basis, balancing supply and demand.

Another major challenge, according to Kenan, was to ensure a completely stable information technology system managing the project under the hood. And to deal with possible theft, damage and vandalism of the bike fleet, the EDA put both physical and electronic safeguards into action. Now that all the pieces are in place, the next step is to physically accommodate the expected increase in bicyclists. To answer this need, the municipality is investing many millions of shekels to add to its existing 65 miles of bike lanes.

"In the last five years, we've invested 10 million shekels per year in constructing bike lanes, and for the next five years the municipality has tripled the budget for this project," says Kenan. "Strategically, the ultimate goal is to increase awareness of bikes as a means of transportation and increase the number of people using them, which will substantially reduce traffic problems and air pollution."

You can find more details and the map of all available docking stations on the official website at http://www.tel-o-fun.co.il/en. Happy cycling!

Bombing of Hassan Bek Mosque averted

A special, covert police operation uncovered what has been described as "the match that would have ignited the entire country, inciting the fires of hate between Jews and Arabs." The police were able to uncover a plot to set off an explosive device at the Hassan Bek Mosque in Neve Tzedek and make it appear like an extreme right price tag operation. The device was discovered mere hours before it was meant to be set.

The operation, dubbed "Violet Wreath," has been said to unearth a plot "stunning in its scope, sophistication and far-reaching ramifications," police sources said Tuesday. The police have 11 suspects in custody, including several family members from Jaffa, who were reportedly doing the bidding of a Jaffa attorney, who wished to settle several business disputes with the proverbial bang. According to police sources, the case dates back to several 2010 arson cases, which caused over a million dollars in damages.

Everything was ready – the gas had been pumped through special pipes into the building – and it was only a slight miscalculation in the gas-to-oxygen ratio which prevented a catastrophic blast from turning the building to cinder. The police were struggling with the case when a lead pointed them to the suspects – members of the Bakher family. The suspects had no criminal records, but surveillance revealed that one of them, A.A, was an explosives expert. He would later become a State witness.

The most nefarious scheme involved a large explosive device meant to assassinate a senior sheikh after Friday prayers at the Hassan Bek Mosque. The suspects were allegedly planning to use a remote detonator to trigger a car bomb which would have been parked at the entrance. The potential casualties among mosque goes would have numbered in the dozens. Witness testimonies reveal that they were planning to hide their tracks by spray painting the words "Price Tag" – a term used for reprisals carried out by far-right activists and settlements – nearby.

"This is a dangerous group of people whose victims were saved by a miracle," the Tel Aviv Police said. "They prepared explosive devices that could have flattened buildings let alone the consequences of the Mosque plan should it have succeeded. We prevented a huge catastrophe," the police said.

Source Ynet

Healthy competition keeps mortgage rates low

The average spread on mortgages is less than half the average for credit in the banking system. Mizrahi Tefahot Bank has the highest spread on mortgages, and Bank Leumi and First International Bank of Israel have the lowest, according to a "Globes" analysis of the banks' financial reports for 2010.

The figures indicate that the average spread on mortgage loans (taking into account all loan plans) was 0.68% in 2010, while the average spread on credit was 1.2%. In other words, the margin is 43 basis points lower on mortgage loans than on regular credit. The figures also indicate that while the average spread on credit rose to 1.2% in 2010 from 1.09% in 2009, it was unchanged at 0.68% on mortgage loans. The figures confirm the claim by Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer that the banks are granting mortgage loans at margins that do not reflect the risk. He told the Knesset Finance Committee a week ago that the spreads were very low. "It's enough for 0.5% of borrowers to become insolvent and banks will begin to lose money," he said.

There is a wide difference between the banks' spreads on credit, due to banks' policies, their customer mix, the proportion of buyers groups out of total credit, the proportion of loans to people eligible for Ministry of Housing discounts, and the matching of the average life span of the sources of funds for the loans. Mizrahi Tefahot Bank had the highest spread on credit, at 0.91% in 2010, up from 0.88% in 2009. The bank has the largest mortgage portfolio, averaging NIS 52.8 billion in 2010, and it has the lowest difference between its average spread on mortgage loans (0.91%) and on average credit (1.1%).

Union Bank of Israel had the second highest spread on mortgage loans, at 0.84% in 2010, up from 0.69% in 2009. Its average spread on credit was 1.09% in 2010. It had the smallest share of the mortgage market, with an average portfolio of NIS 5.4 billion in 2010.

Israel Discount Bank had the third highest spread on mortgage loans, at 0.76% in 2010, down from 0.77% in 2009. Its spread on credit was 1.48% in 2010, but this figure is distorted by the large proportion of credit granted by Israel Discount Bank of New York.

The spread on mortgage loans of Bank Hapoalim was 0.68% in 2010, up from 0.65% in 2009. The bank had the third largest average mortgage portfolio in 2010, at NIS 39.5 billion. The bank's average spread on credit varies widely, depending on the type of customer; it was 0.71% for households and 0.50% for private banking customers. The bank's average spread on credit rose from 0.9% in 2009 to 1.11% in 2010.

Bank Leumi, which had the second largest average mortgage portfolio of NIS 47.7 billion in 2010, had a spread on mortgage loans of 0.45%, down from 0.49% in 2009. The bank's average spread on credit was 1.22% in 2010.

First International Bank also had a spread on mortgage loans of 0.45% in 2010, up from 0.43% in 2009 - the lowest figure for that year. The bank's average spread on credit was 1.13% in 2010.

Source Globes