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Digital assets and currencies

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Payments & settlement

Automatic Bank Services

Automatic Bank Services Ltd. (Hebrew: שירותי בנק אוטומטיים; abbreviated as Shva Hebrew: שבא) is an Israeli company that provides communications and computing services in the banking sector in Israel. Its main field is the clearing of credit card transactions. The company's first CEO, until 1984, was Yoram Elster. After him, for more than thirty years, the CEO was Gideon Milowitzki. CEO M

Payments & settlement

Bank Clearing Center

Bank Clearing Center Ltd. (Hebrew: מרכז סליקה בנקאי; known in its abbrevatiion Masav (Hebrew: Masav) operates the national infrastructure for payment transfers in the Israeli economy. Masav leads the payments and clearing sector in Israel and operates advanced payment transfer systems for tens of thousands of organizations, financial entities and government institutions in Israel. The v

Finance

Bank of Israel

The Bank of Israel (Hebrew: בנק ישראל, Arabic: بنك إسرائيل) is the central bank of Israel. The bank's headquarters is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Jerusalem with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Amir Yaron.

Trading basics

Basis point

A basis point (often abbreviated as bp, often pronounced as "bip" or "beep") is one hundredth of 1 percentage point. Changes of interest rates are often stated in basis points. For example, if an existing interest rate of 10 percent is increased by 1 basis point, the new interest rate would be 10.01 percent.

Banking

Dirham

The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Libya, Qatar and Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin.

Finance

Finance Committee (Israel)

The Finance Committee (Hebrew: ועדת הכספים) is a permanent Knesset committee which oversees finance issues of the State of Israel, including the drafting of legislation, supervision over related government ministries and the approval of their budgets. It is regarded as one of two most important Knesset committees (the other being the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee). Article 100(2)

Trading basics

History of coins

The history of coins stretches back to the first millennium BC/BCE. Notable early examples of coins include the Lydian lion coins, Persian daric and siglos, Tong Bei, the dirham and gold dinar.

Payments & settlement

Israel Credit Cards

Israel Credit Cards Ltd. (Hebrew: כרטיסי אשראי לישראל בע"מ), also known by the Cal (Hebrew: כאל) brand and its historical name "C.A.L" (Hebrew: כ.א.ל or by the nickname "Visa Cal" (Hebrew: ויזה כאל, is a company operating in the Israeli credit card market in two areas of activity: issuing debit cards, especially credit cards, and clearing credit card transactions. The company was founded

Finance

Israel Discount Bank

Israel Discount Bank, Ltd. (Hebrew: בנק דיסקונט לישראל) is an Israeli banking institution that offers a range of financial services, including retail banking, commercial banking, private banking, and financial services. The bank, headquartered in Tel Aviv, operates 112 branches throughout Israel.

Finance

Israel Securities Authority

The Israel Securities Authority (ISA; Hebrew: רשות ניירות ערך) is the national securities regulator of Israel. Established by law in 1968, the Israel Securities Authority sees its mandate as a way to ensure an efficient capital market based on transparency and fairness. The ISA works to fight against securities fraud, insider trading, questionable accounting practices and other activitie

Trading basics

Loans and interest in Judaism

The subject of loans and interest in Judaism has a long and complex history. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Ezekiel classifies the charging of interest among the worst sins, denouncing it as an abomination and metaphorically portraying usurers as people who have shed the borrower's blood. (See Ezekiel 18:13 and 18:17.) The Talmud dwells on Ezekiel's condemnation of charging interest.

Fiat currencies

Martin Hellwig

Martin Friedrich Hellwig (born 5 April 1949) is a German economist. He has been the director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods from 2004 to 2017. Between 2000 and 2004, he was the head of the German Monopolkommission.

Finance

Ministry of Finance (Israel)

The Israeli Ministry of Finance (Hebrew: מִשְׂרַד הָאוֹצָר, romanized: Misrad HaOtzar) is the main economic ministry of the Government of Israel. It is responsible for planning and implementing the Government's overall economic policy, as well as setting targets for fiscal policy, preparing the draft State Budget and monitoring implementation of the approved budget. The ministry also man

Trading basics

MutualArt Group

The Artist Pension Trust (APT), which merged into the MutualArt Group in 2016, is an investment vehicle specializing in contemporary art, which aims to provide financial security and international exposure to selected artists chosen by its international curatorial team. It has the largest global collection of contemporary art, comprising 10,000 artworks from 2,000 artists in 75 countries

Payments & settlement

Pepper (payment application)

Pepper (Hebrew: פפר) is an Israeli online banking service of Bank Leumi where all banking services are offered exclusively through a mobile app.

Trading basics

Rav-Kav

Rav-Kav (Hebrew: רב-קו, lit. "multi-line") is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making electronic payments as a joint fare collection system for the different public transportation operators across Israel.

Payments & settlement

Real-time gross settlement

Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems are specialist funds transfer systems where the transfer of money or securities takes place from one bank to any other bank on a "real-time" and on a "gross" basis to avoid settlement risk. Settlement in "real time" means a payment transaction is not subjected to any waiting period, with transactions being settled as soon as they are processed. H

Banking

Rothschild family

The Rothschild family (Hebrew: משפחת רוטשילד) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt, Germany. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567. The family rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court

Finance

Stanley Fischer

Stanley Fischer (Hebrew: סטנלי פישר; October 15, 1943 – May 31, 2025) was an American and Israeli economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013. Born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), he held dual citizenship in Israel and the United States. He previously served

Securities & exchanges

VIX

VIX is the ticker symbol and popular name for the Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index, a popular measure of the stock market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index options. It is calculated and disseminated on a real-time basis by the CBOE, and is often referred to as the fear index or fear gauge.

Finance

Yozma

Yozma, Yozma Program, or Yozma Fund was a venture capital organization in Israel that initially started out as a government funded program in 1993 to help kick start venture capital, angel investing, and private equity in Israel's economy. $20 million of government subsidies went to the Yozma Fund, the other $80 million the government provided went to match other foreign and domestic fir