Latest Updates

April 10, 2024

Barnea: Webinar on Regulation of Payment and Payment Initiation Services Law

Our firm hosted a webinar on the new payment services law. The webinar was held as part of a forum for financial service providers that we launched together with Adv. Orit Yosef. During the webinar, Dr. Zvi Gabbay and Anat Even-Chen discussed the conditions for obtaining a license, the relationship between payment services and open banking services, and more.

April 2, 2024

Barnea: Hosting IIRF Conference on Future of Stock Market Trading

We were pleased to host the Israel Investor Relations Forum’s conference on the future of stock market trading. A one-on-one conversation was held between Micah Stocks, a financial YouTuber who presents stock market news, and Rami Rozen, Director of Investor Relations at AppsFlyer and a member of the IIRF’s regulatory committee. Dr. Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, also spoke.

April 2, 2024

MiCA and Reverse Solicitation

Under MiCA, a critical aspect for non-EU crypto firms is the reverse solicitation exemption. This rule allows firms from outside the EU to offer crypto-asset services to EU clients without needing MiCA authorization.

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March 19, 2024

New Method Threatening the Rule of Managers in the Stock Market

As an expert on control struggles, Micky Barnea was interviewed by Globes for an article on the Amir brothers' takeover of Shufersal. Micky explained the significance of holding less than 25 percent of a company and the tools available to the Israel Securities Authority in such transactions.

March 3, 2024

Israel Securities Authority: Oversight of Unsupervised Entities

In a paradoxical twist, the Israel Securities Authority also monitors unsupervised entities, to prevent them from exceeding their operational parameters without a license. Consequently, the ISA possesses the power to request documents and information from these entities, emphasizing the importance of responding honestly and comprehensively to such demands.

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February 29, 2024

Fintech: Dr. Zvi Gabbay Lectured at Reichman University

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, lectured at Reichman University. In this lecture, he offered insights into the convergence of regulatory frameworks and fintech verticals, shedding light on how to navigate and comply with evolving regulatory conditions.

February 29, 2024

Israel Securities Authority: Diversifying SMEs’ Financing Channels

Small and medium-sized corporations are a central part of the Israeli economy’s growth engine and are considered major contributors to employment growth. The Israel Securities Authority is seeking to assist these businesses in diversifying their funding sources.

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February 26, 2024

US Regulatory Authorities Look to Increase Hedge Funds' Transparency and Stability

The new rules will require managers of large hedge funds to disclose additional information about their activities and strategies and provide more detail about their investments, including the countries and industries in which they are invested, leverage exposures, and more. As expected, fund managers are objecting, arguing that the new requirements will lead to superfluous information overload.

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February 22, 2024

Risk to Israeli Entities Posed by International Sanctions – What Is the Exposure and What Are the Dangers?

The United States, the European Union, and other countries have been imposing economic sanctions on Israel for quite some time. The recent sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers suspected or convicted of committing violence against Palestinians may be a harbinger of a broad regime of sanctions that may affect business activities in Israel.

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February 7, 2024

Webinar: Agreements with Brokers

Our firm was hosted on a webinar of the Hedge Funds Association in which Dr. Zvi Gabbay lectured the Association members on the important points that should be included in agreements with brokers.

January 23, 2024

The SEC Approves ETFs That Track Bitcoin

The SEC approval has aroused considerable excitement, especially among people in the crypto and bitcoin industry. However, these are approvals of specific applications and not across-the-board approvals, and the SEC still considers this an unstable sector requiring investors to remain cautious.

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January 9, 2024

Mediterranean Towers and Clal Insurance & Finance Establish Joint Venture

Mediterranean Towers and Clal Insurance Finance have signed an agreement to invest ILS 500 million for the establishment of a joint venture to locate and develop senior housing enterprises. The ILS 500 million will serve as the JV's equity capital, for up to ILS 3.3 billion in financing. Mediterranean Towers, a leader in senior housing complexes in Israel, will invest ILS 200 million in the joint venture and will own 51% of the rights and capital of the JV. Advs. David (Dudi) Cohen and Omri Oren represented Mediterranean Towers in the deal.

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January 8, 2024

New ISA Rules on Foreign Brokers’ Supervision of Marketers

The Israel Securities Authority imposes supervisory obligations on foreign brokers with regard to the activities of their marketers in Israel.

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January 3, 2024

Barnea: Representing Pomvom in Merger with Israel Acquisitions Corp

Israel Acquisitions Corp, initially founded as a SPAC, and Pomvom Ltd., a technology firm specializing in amusement park content, have formally announced a binding merger agreement. The combined entity is set to be traded on Nasdaq. Hagit Ross, Alon Anava, and Ronit Lerer represented Pomvom Ltd.

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December 26, 2023

Institutional Activism – Interview with Micky Barnea and Zohar Lande

In the past year, there has been a growing trend of institutional investors seeking to influence the companies in which they hold shares. As experts in the field, Micky Barnea and Zohar Lande were interviewed by TheMarker about institutional investors’ increasing involvement in companies.

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December 25, 2023

An Interview with Dr. Zvi Gabbay on the SEC’s Approach to Regulating the Crypto Market from a Legal Perspective

As an expert in regulatory affairs, Finance Magnates conducted a two-part interview with Dr. Zvi Gabbay. In the interview, Zvi expressed strong criticism of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's current strategy regarding the cryptocurrency market. This comes in the wake of the SEC's aggressive legal actions against major players such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.

To read Part 1 – The SEC Is Wrong and They're Already Paying for It

To read Part 2 – BlackRock's Venture into the Bitcoin ETF Realm>>

December 5, 2023

Dr. Zvi Gabbay Recognized as Leading Blockchain Lawyer

Zvi is among an exclusive list of lawyers nominated for the Lexology 2024 Client Choice Awards. Zvi is the only Israeli lawyer recognized in the Blockchain field.

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December 4, 2023

Stock Market Investors Knew of Hamas’s Attack in Advance and Profited – Interview with Dr. Zvi Gabbay

Mako interviewed Dr. Zvi Gabbay, the head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, after a US study revealed an unusual volume of transactions on the New York and Tel Aviv stock exchanges gambling on the collapse of the Israeli stock market a week before Hamas’s October 7th attack.

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November 23, 2023

Barnea: Webinar on the Work of Compliance Officers during Wartime

Our firm hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Counsel in Israel on the issue of compliance during wartime. As part of the webinar, Dr. Zvi Gabbay, head of our firm’s Capital Markets Department, emphasized the compliance actions required during wartime by offering comparisons to other recent global war zones.

November 19, 2023

Israeli Private Companies and Prospectus Obligations

For Israeli private companies aiming to secure investments, it is crucial to have a solid understanding of the obligations set forth by the Israeli Securities Law. Chief among these is the prohibition on conducting public offerings of securities without a proper prospectus, which, if violated, could lead to legal scrutiny.

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