Client updates

Apartment owners experiencing difficulty selling their old apartments are entitled to a seven-month extension in which to sell, and the Israel Tax Authority will not count this period for tax purposes.

The inter-ministerial team assembled to examine the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on contractual agreements has recently published its recommendations.

The Israel Securities Authority announced a new relief for public companies regarding directors’ and officers’ liability insurance. This relief will enable companies to include in remuneration policies only the scope of the insurance coverage, without the other parameters required to date.

Although Israel is a world leader in the fintech field, companies operating in this area face many regulatory challenges. A newly published legal memorandum aims to enable the creation of a “sandbox”, with inspiration from various programs already implemented in Japan, Australia, and Singapore. The goal is to establish a unique experimental environment, a “regulatory sandbox,” where regulatory relief is granted to companies who choose to participate in the program.

As part of a broad change led by the Ministry of Finance to increase competition in the banking and financial services market, a memorandum for the Provision of Financial Information Services Law was recently published for public comments.

Prompted by the use of digital currencies to fund terror and other illegal activity, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority has published a document aimed at assisting financial bodies and law enforcement agencies to identify improper activity in this field.

A hedge fund is an entity comprised of several investors seeking to invest in financial assets to achieve a common profit, where the execution of the investment may change from one fund to another, in accordance with the investment strategies put in place by the fund manager.

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the enforcement of accessibility issues in Israel. More and more companies are facing requests for certification of class action suits for failing to make services accessible to people with disabilities. Such proceedings, exempt from court fees, are initiated by lead plaintiffs against big and small organizations, from both the private and public sectors.

The State of Israel continues to cope with the COVID-19 crisis and its implications for the workforce. In recent days, new and important guidelines were updated for the Israeli workforce’s handling of the coronavirus crisis

A recent decision by the Economic Division of the Tel-Aviv District Court has emphasized the requirement for officers and decision makers in a company, to undertake a stricter review standard when making decisions, especially in conflict of interest situations. Accordingly companies must now increase the scrutiny on the decision making of directors in private companies, an important decision in light of the current economic climate.

The Israel Securities Authority has approved expanding the trading activity conducted on the trading platform for institutional investors of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (referred to as TACT), so that additional types of securities may be issued and traded on it.

A new, welcome initiative by the Israel Patent Office intends to allow entrepreneurs, through a preliminary and fast-tracked process, to submit an application for the provisional registration of a patent. This is a significant step, which could revolutionize entrepreneurial innovation in Israel and make it easier on many Israelis who wish to protect future patents. In the course of the fast-track process, the application is not considered for a year, and applicants are able to set an early submission date for the patent’s registration.

Several weeks ago, the Israel Securities Authority published a staff position paper on the consequences of the coronavirus crisis for the disclosure and financial reporting included in the 2020 first quarter report.

More will be told of the COVID-19 crisis and the changes it brought to Israeli labor relations. In the meantime, we have gathered brief guidelines on a return to normal:

How Israeli companies operating in the U.S. can use COVID-19 as a force majeure and the restructuring of debt in chapter 11 bankruptcy ?

As part of its effort to deal with the coronavirus crisis, the Social Services Division of the Accountant General’s Department at the Israeli Ministry of Finance recently released an aid package for the benefit of third-sector organizations.

Following a previous Israel Innovation Authority call for bids for companies developing technologies to help deal with the coronavirus crisis, the IIA has opened a channel to support companies facing financial hardships due to the virus.

After Libra, Facebook’s ambitious global digital currency venture, faced fierce resistance from regulators around the world, Facebook has announced “Libra 2.0.” The venture is set to undergo far-reaching changes that, on the one hand, will likely do away with regulatory concerns, but, on the other, will force Facebook to give up its original vision, i.e. a quick and simple transfer of digital currencies between accepted users worldwide without the need for a bank account.

On April 19, new guidelines were introduced allowing a gradual return to the workplace. Here are the key guidelines. According to the guidelines, it is permitted to employ in a workplace whose opening has not been banned 10 employees or up to 30% of employees, whichever is higher. However, it is possible to increase the number of employees in the workplace in the industries and services fields beyond the 30% cap, subject to each workplace complying with the “purple tag” rules.

New regulations were signed on April 6, 2020 that allow pregnant women, women and men undergoing infertility treatment, and women returning to work after maternity leave to be put on unpaid leave, under certain conditions, without the need for a permit from the Ministry of Labor.