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Latest Updates / Capital Markets
November 17, 2020
Israel Securities Authority – What Constitutes Securities Fraud?
The Israel Securities Authority recently published a staff position on situations it believes indicate fraudulent securities trading and which justify opening a criminal investigation.
November 15, 2020
ISA: Expanding Disclosure on Independent Committees
The Israel Securities Authority will soon require public companies to disclose details about independent committees tasked with overseeing transactions with controlling shareholders. The staff position was put together due to the increased need for supervision and oversight of decision-making processes in transactions between public companies and their controlling shareholders.
November 11, 2020
Dr. Zvi Gabbay Lectures on Distribution and Marketing of Hedge Funds
Dr. Zvi Gabbay lectured today on the distribution and marketing of hedge funds as part of a virtual conference held in collaboration with the Israel Hedge Funds Association and the international law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.
October 19, 2020
Barnea Represented Canomed in Issuing a Series of Options
Hagit Ross, a partner in our Capital Markets Department, represented Canomed, a company engaged in the cultivation, marketing, and direct sale of medical cannabis, in the issuance of two options series. The issuance is expected to reach a value of NIS 6 million. Canomed is one of the first companies to promote the purchase of pharmacies licensed to sell medical cannabis, thus providing the company direct access to the end consumer. Canomed itself already owns several such pharmacies.
October 15, 2020
The Leaked FinCEN Files Harm the Fight against Money Laundering
In mid-September 2020, a series of articles were published by a group of foreign journalists, based on the collection and analysis of over 2,500 leaked documents from FinCEN, the US equivalent of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.
The leak of such sensitive information may cause banks and financial institutions to think twice before reporting suspicious financial activity, which would be a mistake. Check out Dr. Zvi Gabbay's op-ed in Calcalist on the subject.
October 15, 2020
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) –The Future of Finance?
What is DeFi?
The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is still the most well-known application of blockchain. However, this technology has since rapidly evolved and expanded in many other areas. The initial hope with Bitcoin was to make both money and payments decentralized and universally accessible. Although Bitcoin failed to live up to this promise, decentralized finance based on blockchain (DeFi), also called open finance, is a fledgling technology with potential. DeFi is operated by decentralized, permisionless (without any central authority) applications, called DApps, built on a blockchain network, most commonly Etherum. Visionaries see this as an open-source alternative to every financial service we use today: from savings, loans, and trades, to insurance and even more, all globally accessible.
September 21, 2020
Blockchain and Digital Currencies Regulation
Dr. Zvi Gabbay examines in a short video the topic of digital currencies and recent developments in blockchain regulation in Israel.
September 15, 2020
“It’s A New World Out There – Hedge Funds Navigating COVID”
As part of our legal counsel to the Israel Hedge Funds Association, we are proud to be involved in the IHFA's 8th Annual Conference. The theme of the conference is “It's A New World Out There – Hedge Funds Navigating COVID.”
September 3, 2020
Israel Securities Authority Publishes Sentencings Guidelines for Administrative Procedures
For the first time, the Israel Securities Authority has published Sentencing Guidelines for Administrative Procedures which contain the considerations guiding its determination of sanctions for individual violators and corporations in an administrative procedure.
August 19, 2020
Zvi Gabbay Lectures Compliance Officer Training Course
As an expert in the compliance field, Zvi Gabbay was invited for the fourth straight year to lecture a compliance officer training course organized by the BDO Academy of Finance and MITIGATE. This unique practical course is geared to compliance officers in international financial organizations. During the lecture, Zvi discussed administrative enforcement and enforcement plans.
August 11, 2020
Israel Securities Authority: Distributors May Be Liable for the Contents of a Prospectus
The Israeli Securities Authority has announced that distribution entities now may be liable for the contents of a prospectus. In a staff position paper published in late July, the ISA changed the rules of the game in the underwriting field by determining that a distributor, or an entity associated with a distributor, that purchases securities during an issuance and sells them within a short period of time (six months or less) shall be viewed by the ISA as an underwriter and shall be liable for the prospectus.
August 10, 2020
Providing Counsel in the Establishment of a New Investment Fund in Asia
Liquidity Fund of Meitav Dash will establish with MUFG Bank, the world’s largest Japanese bank, a new private investment fund in Asia. The new fund will be incorporated in Singapore, and will provide credit to companies in Asia, through securitization transactions of future cash flows. Our firm, led by attorneys Roy Engel and Yuval Lazi, accompanied Liquidity, which as part of the agreement will provide the joint company with management and underwriting services.
July 12, 2020
Dividend Distribution in Times of Covid-19
The recent dividend distribution by TASE-traded company Fox-Wizel Ltd. after receiving emergency funding from the Israeli government not only raised moral questions but also underscored the complexity facing many companies at this time. Globes published an op-ed by Micky Barnea in response to the backlash following the company's actions. Micky noted that a key challenge faced by companies is how to balance between dealing with the difficulties and uncertainties of the COVID-19 era, on the one hand, and the desire and responsibility to continue operations as commercial enterprises, on the other.
July 9, 2020
Fintech Companies: New Program to Facilitate Regulatory Reliefs
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.
July 9, 2020
Remuneration Policy: New Reliefs for Officers’ Insurance
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.
July 7, 2020
Banks Required to Share Information about Clients with Other Financial Bodies
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.
July 6, 2020
Israel: How to Identify Suspicious Use of Virtual Currencies
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.
July 2, 2020
Taxation of Hedge Funds in Israel – A Short Guide to the Perplexed
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.
June 24, 2020
New Capital Raising Channels to Be Made Available on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
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.
June 21, 2020
Crowdfunding Regulation in Israel
In a short video, Dr. Zvi Gabbay explains the crowdfunding model, which has become an attractive channel for both investors and companies seeking funding, and overviews current regulation in Israel.