Israel is about to adopt financial practices that it hopes will increase the interest of foreign investors. It will become one of the first countries to apply mandatory reporting requirements in the XBRL computer language, enabling investors worldwide to analyse financial statements issued in Hebrew, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said on Thursday.
"In order to attract foreign investors to Israel, we have to speak their language," ISA Chairman Moshe Tery told a news conference. Major Israeli companies with foreign investment include dominant phone company Bezeq Israel Telecom, fertiliser and specialty chemicals maker Israel Chemicals Israel Discount Bankand Bank Leumi. The financial statements of Israeli companies are distributed in Hebrew by Magna, the ISA's mandatory electronic reporting system, though dual-listed companies such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Partner Communications already report in English.
Starting January 1 financial reporting on Magna will be translated into XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, a global machine-readable standard that enables investors to instantly analyse detailed financial numbers. Also in January, Israeli companies will be required to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
The move to XBRL and IFRS "will enable international investment companies to read and understand financial reports prepared in Israel in their mother tongue, without the cultural or geographical distance being an impediment to investing decisions," Tery said.