Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich announced today that he had decided to appoint Adv. Yosef (Seffy) Zinger as chairperson of the Israel Securities Authority, to replace Anat Guetta, who completed a five-year term two months ago. Zinger (44) is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Department of law firm Herzog Fox & Neeman. The appointment is subject to approval by the Committee for the Examination of Appointments in Government Companies.
"The Ministry of Finance will shortly introduce in-depth processes in the Israeli economy the aim of which is to propel the economy forward and to conduct a determined fight on the issue of the cost of living. Seffy will join the leadership of the Ministry of Finance and will bring to the table the point of view of making the capital market more sophisticated, developing new financial instruments to support the various branches of the economy, strengthening the stock exchange, reducing and consolidating regulation, and more."
Zinger joined Herzog Fox & Neeman in 2018 as a partner in the Corporate and Securities Department. In that role he advised Israeli and multi-national companies on a wide range of complex matters in company and securities law. Among other things, he dealt with the sale of the controlling core in telecommunications company Partner, the debt settlement in IDB, the financing of the privatization of Haifa Port, and margin and securitization deals.
Zinger’s new appointment represents a return to the civil service for him. Before joining Herzog Fox & Neeman, he worked for seven years as a lawyer in the Ministry of Justice. In that capacity, he oversaw the passage of one of the most important economic laws of recent years, the new Insolvency Law, and had a hand in many of the economic reforms introduced in those years, such as regulation of securitization, the regularization of the state’s share in Israel’s natural resources (the Sheshinski committees), the gas plan, non-bank credit, and the committee that examined debt settlements in Israel. Many challenges await Zinger as head of the Israel Securities Authority. One of the biggest will be to strengthen the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange so that it will attract investors at a time when many prefer overseas markets, especially the financial institutions that often say that the local capital market is too small for them.
The Securities Authority has been criticized in recent years for not carrying out enough audits of supervised entities, among them listed public companies.
Another challenge will be advancing the open banking reform, large parts of which are the responsibility of the Securities Authority, such as regulation of fintech introduced into the financial system. This leads to what is perhaps the greatest challenge, which is working with other regulators, such as the Banking Supervision Department at the Bank of Israel and the Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings Authority.
Ilan Flato, president and CEO of the Israeli Association of Publicly Traded Companies, said in response to the appointment: "I welcome the decision of the minister of finance, who has chosen a worthy professional with a holistic view of both the public and private markets. The relative stagnation in the Israeli capital market demands immediate attention. Adv. Zinger will unfortunately not have a hundred days of grace. The Israel Securities Authority must quickly introduce a series of measures that will encourage investment in Israeli companies in preference to public companies on other stock exchanges around the world. The Israeli stock exchange is an important growth engine for extricating the economy from the emerging slowdown."
Outgoing chairperson Anat Guetta said, "I welcome the appointment and choice of Seffy Zinger as the new chairperson of the Israel Securities Authority. From my experience and my acquaintance with Seffy, I know that he brings with him the highest standards of professionalism and honesty, wisdom and modesty. I am sure that Seffy will lead the Authority in a way that will bring great value to all sectors of the Israeli economy and public, by reinforcing competition and innovation in the financial market, among other things through the consolidation and strengthening of the new areas of activity that the Authority has started to build and supervise in the financial market."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 12, 2023.
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