The Ministry of Finance is following through on the reform of the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) pension funds. Supervisor of Insurance Eyal Ben-Chelouche today appointed four special managers for the funds having an actuarial deficit.
The managers were chosen from a list recommended by a public committee, headed by Judge emeritus Eliyahu Vinograd. Three administrators for each fund will also be appointed at a later stage, and will replace the board of directors of the funds.
At the same time, Ben-Chelouche announced that he planned an operational consolidation between some of the funds in the near future, in order to streamline and cut management expenses. He promised to transfer the amount saved to the pension fund members. The appointed special managers are as follows:
- Adv. Yaron Arbel will manage the Mivtachim Pension Fund, which has assets of NIS 95.2 billion, and a NIS 15.9 billion actuarial deficit.
- Ehud Nahtomi will manage the Makefet Fund, which has assets of NIS 19.3 billion, and a NIS 7.8 billion actuarial deficit.
- Shalom Singer will manage the Histadrut pension fund, which has assets of NIS 12.7 billon, and a NIS 15.4 billion actuarial deficit.
- Moshe Sagie will manage the Pension Fund for Agricultural Workers & Non-Professionals, which has assets of NIS 605 million, and a NIS 1.4 billion actuarial deficit.
Singer is a partner in Singer-Barnea investment house, a former Ministry of Finance director general under the late Yitzhak Modai, and former CEO of First International Bank of Israel (TASE:FTIN1. Sagie formerly managed the Israel Discount Bank (TASE:DSCT) pension funds, and was a senior assistant to the Ministry of Finance official responsible for the capital market. He also served as a director of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the Israel Postal Authority.
Nahtomi, at 39 the youngest of the four, has been deputy CEO of Migdal Insurance (TASE:MGDL), responsible for pension and provident funds. Arbel is already the authorized manager of the Nativ Pension Fund, and was deputy to the Custodian General.
Deputy Supervisor of Insurance Rami Dayan CPA told “Globes”, “Only an operational consolidation is under discussion, not a merger. We won’t manage the funds or rights of the fund members.
The plan is that the consolidated funds won’t have more than one manager and boards of director. An operational consolidation can utilize economies of scale, and will save greatly on costs.”
Dayan added that it had not yet been decided which funds would be consolidated. “I assume that we’ll decide in the coming weeks to consolidate several funds.”
The Ministry of Finance said that all the special managers had entered the offices of their fund this morning, and notified the funds’ management and boards of directors that they were no longer working there, and that the new managers had assumed the management authority.
Published by Globes [online] -l www.globes.co.il - on July 23, 2003