Supervisor of banks: Dankner dismissal stabilized Hapoalim

Supervisor of Banks Rony Hizkiyahu said Tuesday that had he not fired Bank Hapoalim chairman Danny Dankner, it would have endangered the bank's stability. During a Jerusalem press conference, Hizkiyahu shed some light on the circumstances of Dankner's dismissal, which he described as "a well planned move that allayed possible fears over the bank's stability." "Due to our intervention, the bank reached a safe haven and its losses were cut," he said. Hizkiyahu said that BoI Governor Stanley Fischer passed information on to Bank Hapoalim controlling shareholder Shari Arison in light of events that lead to Dankner's departure, but stressed that the law did not obligate him to reveal the full extent of the episode. "If you're asking whether she got information, then, yes, but not in it's entirety," he said. "We are responsible for the stability of the bank, and also for what we think needs to be said to both the controlling shareholder and to the public. We use a degree of censorship...we have revealed certain things, but not everything." Two months ago, following Dankner's dismissal, Arison passed a series of documents on to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, complaining about Fischer's role in the affair. Hizkiyahu also referred to the recession, and said that despite a Central Bureau of Statistics report earlier this week, indicating that it was over, that was far from being the case. "The optimism is premature," he said. "The problems in the economy cannot be solved overnight."

Supervisor of banks: Dankner dismissal stabilized Hapoalim

"Due to our intervention, the bank reached a safe haven and its losses were cut," says Hizkiyahu at J'lem press conference, adds recession far from over.

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