In the months following January 2024, Israel saw a significant decrease in the volume of frozen loans. The loan freeze program, which has been extended twice, is currently in effect until June. According to data from the Bank of Israel, the volume of frozen loans decreased significantly in February and March. In February, the volume dropped to 63 billion shekels, and in March it further decreased to 54.6 billion shekels. This means that Israelis have resumed payments on 45% of the loans that were previously frozen due to the war.
The majority of the loans for which payments were resumed are commercial loans. Of the loans that remain frozen, most are mortgages totaling 39.3 billion shekels and accounting for 6.7% of total mortgage loans. Additionally, there are still 2.7 billion shekels of consumer loans and 7.3 billion shekels of small business commercial loans that are still frozen. It’s important to note that most of these remaining frozen loans are mortgages and small business commercial loans account for a large portion of them while consumer loan is relatively smaller in comparison with mortgages and commercial loans