March 17, 2014

The Bank of Israel ordered Israeli banks today to prepare to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and not to wait for an Israeli-US agreement on the exchange of tax data.

See http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-boi-orders-banks-to-prepare-for-fatca-1000924691

This development is quite surprising as usually countries sign the FATCA agreement first before starting the implementation of FATCA rules.

The negotiations with the USA have been ongoing a very long time and this may be partly the result of the U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation into the behavior of three Israeli banks in Switzerland: Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim and Bank Mizrahi.