Israel Central Bank Questions Smotrich’s Bank Windfall Tax Plan

Israel’s central bank questioned government plans to impose a new windfall tax on banks as part of next year’s budget, saying the proposal would undermine regulatory certainty and hurt the incentive to invest.

A levy on a particular sector such as that trailed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this week would first require an “in-depth and comprehensive examination,” the Bank of Israel said in a statement on Wednesday.

The tax would, furthermore, “negatively affect the performance of financial markets and the value of public assets,” policymakers said.

Smotrich said Tuesday a new bank levy would focus on industry profits ...