Atias, Treasury spar over Postal Bank direction
“To claim that the Postal Bank will compete against Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi is a big mistake, and I won’t let it happen. Such a move would turn an angel into a demon, which instead of helping Israel Post Company Ltd., will harm it,” said Minister of Communications Ariel Atias in response to the decision to transfer supervision of the Postal Bank to the Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department as part of the Postal Bank’s privatization.
The privatization of Israel Post, including the Postal Bank, should move forward quickly now that a new minister of finance and Government Companies Authority director general have been appointed, and the issue has been included in the 2008 economic arrangements bill. However, Atias opposes losing control of the Postal Bank on the grounds that Israel Post is not ready for the privatization. He claims that postal services would become secondary to banking services that the Postal Bank is due to provide in the future.
Atias said, “The Postal Bank is supposed to serve the poor and middle class, not provide credit to manufacturers and commercial companies. The Ministry of Finance wants to turn it into a large bank, which is a mistake.”
The Bank of Israel supports the Ministry of Finance, and believes that the Postal Bank should be turned into a regular banking corporation as part of the privatization of Israel Post. Supervisor of Banks Rony Hizkiyahu has made turning the Postal Bank into a commercial bank conditional on having a minimum shareholders’ equity of NIS 150 million and transferring supervision of the Postal Bank to the Bank of Israel.
The Government Companies Authority proposes privatizing Israel Post in two stages. In the first stage, 49 pct of the company will be sold in an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) by May 31, 2008. Later, the rest of the company will be sold to a strategic investor.
