Israel securities regulator to woo US investors as looks beyond Gaza war

investing.com:

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) — The Israeli securities watchdog's new chairman, Seffy Zinger, heads to the United States next week to woo U.S. investors and reassure them that it is business as usual despite Israel's three-month war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The past year was challenging for Israeli markets, with the main Tel Aviv 125 index dropping 15% following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group which led to the war in Gaza.

The index subsequently rebounded to end 2023 up 4% but still significantly lagged U.S. indices. It is now trading at pre-war levels.

Zinger, who took over the helm of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) after years as a partner in the Corporate and Securities Department at a top Israeli law firm, said he was looking at prospects for economic recovery this year.

«We want to tell the world that the Israeli economy is functional during the war and the stock exchange didn't close even for one day,» he told Reuters in an interview.

«We believe there is an opportunity in Israel that after the war the economy will grow. The same thing happened in past wars or military campaigns in Israel the last two decades. And the high tech sector is very strong.»

The economy is expected to get a boost as the military gradually releases more than 300,000 Israelis drafted to reserve duty which led to labour shortages, many of whom came from the important high-tech sector.

Regulating artificial intelligence (AI) and improving corporate compliance and enforcement were also Zinger's main focus, he said, noting that Israel's securities laws were decades old and did not have AI in mind.

«How can we use AI technology for our purposes and on the other side is the market side