CBNNew.com - TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli customers worried about the financial meltdown on Wall Street and elsewhere launched a raid on their savings funds this week, pulling out 5 billion shekels ($1.4 billion) in just two days. Depositors were taking money out of savings and putting it into checking accounts.

One Tel Aviv mutual fund manager said, "They're in a panic. People want their money. They're hysterical."

The intervention of central banks worldwide, which included the infusion of $180 billion into global money markets, was designed to slow the panic and help stabilize the financial system. But in Israel as in many other countries, stock and bond markets tumbled. And Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel's largest banks, lost 25 percent of its value in the past week.

Investment analysts are trying to reduce the fear level, telling investors to hang on to their assets and not to lock in losses.

Source: Haaretz