Israel's top bankers will meet in Washington in mid-October. The heads of Israel's big banks will attend the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Bank of Israel will also send a large delegation headed by Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer, formerly the deputy managing director of the IMF.
The IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings will take place from October 11 to October 13, and Fischer will be one of the speakers at the Per Jacobsson Foundation Forum on October 12.
The main seminar will also be held on October 12, and will discuss the global financial crisis. The moderator of the session will be "Financial Times" associate editor Martin Wolf, with the participation of Citigroup chief economist Lewis Alexander, US Federal Reserve first VP Christine Cummings, former Federal Reserve Governor and Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson, Mario Magalhaes, Carvalho Mesquita, deputy governor for economic policy at the Bank of Brazil, and Soros Fund Management chairman George Soros, who vigorously opposes the US government's rescue plan for the financial industry.
Bank Hapoalim (LSE: 80OA; TASE: POLI) will be represented at the conference by CEO Zvi Ziv, and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) will be represented by CEO Galia Maor and chairman Eitan Raff. Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) will send its CEO Eli Yones, while First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1;FTIN5) will be represented by CEO Smadar Barber-Tsadik, and deputy CEO Zeev Gutman. As was the case last year, Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) will be the only large bank not attending the conference.
Governor Stanley Fischer will head the delegates, accompanied by Deputy Governor Prof. Zvi Eckstein, research director Dr. Karnit Flug, and market activity division director Barry Topf. The Ministry of Finance will be represented by Accountant General Shuki Oren. Minister of Finance Ronnie Bar-On, and director general Yarom Ariav, will not attend this year's meeting.
The IMF was founded in 1946 and is one of a number of international economic organizations such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. The IMF has 185 member countries and its managing director is former French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who took up his post in 2007.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 6, 2008
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