S&P raises Israel Aerospace Industries’ int’l credit rating to A-

The S&P Maalot credit rating agency announced on Thursday that it is raising IAI’s international rating to A-, as the company “continues to achieve strong operating results, and its backlog of orders has reached a record 21 billion US dollars.” Their announcement further added that “the company’s rate of output remains almost unaffected by […]

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Iran, Russia to trade in local currencies instead of US dollar

Iran and Russia have finalized an agreement to trade in their local currencies instead of the US dollar, Iran’s state media reported on Wednesday. The agreement was finalized during a meeting between the governors of the two countries’ central banks in Russia, it said. Both Iran and Russia are subject to US sanctions. “Banks and […]

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The shekel is getting stronger, but for the wrong reasons – analysis

Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, a peculiar financial trend has caught the attention of experts and market observers: the strengthening of the shekel against major currencies. Despite the tumultuous Iron Swords operation in Gaza, the representative shekel-dollar exchange rate unexpectedly fell by 0.47% on Friday to NIS 3.5990/$, reaching its lowest […]

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Israel’s black market is thriving amid economic crisis

The compensation plan currently in place for businesses is designed to reflect a decrease in turnover compared to the previous year, but this inadvertently creates an incentive for businesses to underreport their income or conduct transactions off the books. Both of these practices are considered offenses and are subject to scrutiny by the Tax […]

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Survival or layoffs: What’s at stake for Israel’s businesses in 2024

As the global economic landscape faced headwinds in 2023, Israeli businesses navigated through a challenging year marked by a slowdown in the tech sector, political unrest, and an unexpected war with Hamas. In light of the country’s current hurdles, Eran Mordechai, CEO of Danal Human Resources at Danel Group, shared his insights on the trajectory […]

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Ex-Israeli finance minister implicated in finance firm fraud scandal

The Israeli Securities Authority’s Investigations, Intelligence, and Market Surveillance Department has uncovered numerous scandals and fraud at the Unite Credit Financial Services Ltd., implicating several senior officials, including former board chairman and finance minister Moshe Kahlon, in a series of crimes. The findings of their investigation have been forwarded to the prosecution’s office. This […]

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Israelis cut credit card spending by 15.8% amid Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli public’s credit card use decreased by 15.8% last week, amounting to NIS 1.4 billion less than average, according to data from Sheba. Expenses during the ninth week of the war (December 3 to 9) totaled NIS 7.659 billion, compared to the average weekly expenses of NIS 9.096 billion since the beginning of […]

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2023’s transaction value marks 10-year low, and the war makes it worse

PwC Israel has released its comprehensive annual business transactions report for the year 2023, providing a deep dive into the intricate dynamics of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving Israeli companies. The report highlights a challenging landscape characterized by a substantial 46% decrease in transaction volume and a 23% decline in the total number of […]

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New crypto front emerges in Israel’s terrorist financing fight

A new front has emerged in Israel’s fight against the funding of Iran-backed terrorist groups from Hamas to Hezbollah: A fast-growing crypto network called Tron. Quicker and cheaper than its larger rival Bitcoin, Tron has overtaken its rival as a platform for crypto transfers associated with groups designated as terror organizations by Israel, the […]

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‘We are a firm that does things other firms don’t do’

‘We call ourselves a family, and we mean it when we say that,” says Richard A. Rosenbaum, executive chairman of Greenberg Traurig, the multinational law firm that employs more than 2,650 lawyers in 47 offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In early November, Rosenbaum (no relation to this writer) and another partner […]

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