Client updates / Banking & Finance

New provisions set out the licensing framework for the provision of payment services, designed to encourage new players to enter the Israeli market and offer payment services while providing broad protection to consumers. The law will apply to companies providing payment services, credit service providers, acquirers, and more.

The risk of money laundering is one of the main risks involved in using and trading cryptocurrencies. This amendment to Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 411 addresses how banks should manage money laundering and terror financing risks.

The Bank of Israel published its latest annual review at the end of May. The review includes an announcement by Supervisor of Banks Yair Avidan that he is promoting the formulation of updated comprehensive regulations on environmental risk management, considering the considerable importance he attributes to the subject of the environment.

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.

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 ?

The Bank of Israel recently led several important developments in the Israeli payments market, which are designed to encourage competition and to advance the implementation of innovative technologies.

Bank of Israel published a position paper with respect to the activity of banks’ payment apps in the B2C market. The position paper is the conclusion of a long battle waged by credit card companies against the banks.

The Tel Aviv District Court issued a ruling recently on a case concerning a bank’s conduct with funds whose source is digital currencies. The court expressly ruled that the bank’s blanket ban on the opening of bank accounts by clients engaging in digital currency activity is unreasonable.

This month, an Israeli district court deliberated a motion for an interlocutory order against Bank Hapoalim. The order would obligate the bank to accept the transfer into a customer’s account of money that constituted proceeds from a sale of digital coins transacted outside of Israel.

Precedent set by the Tel-Aviv District Court rules that a bank may refuse to provide service to a company engaging in virtual currencies.

As part of the global trend towards finding energy alternatives and towards encouraging the establishment of renewable-energy projects, the State of Israel has issued several significant tenders in recent years with the aim of securing cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. Such tenders include two separate tenders for the construction and operation of two solar-thermal power plants (Plot A and Plot B) in the vicinity of Kibbutz Ashalim in southern Israel and the Gilboa hydroelectric pumped storage power station.