JERUSALEM – Dan Dankner, the embattled chief executive officer of Israel’s largest bank, resigned Monday under pressure from the governor of the Central Bank, Israel TV reported.
The governor, Stanley Fischer, targeted Dankner weeks ago in an unprecedented campaign against Bank Hapoalim, the financial institution he headed, and its owner, billionaire Shari Arison.Arison lined up squarely behind Dankner, publicly accusing Fischer of improper intervention in her bank’s affairs, but Fischer kept up the pressure.Fischer left a top position at Citigroup in New York to become governor of the Bank of Israel in 2005.Israel TV said Dankner would leave his position in two or three months. But the state TV’s veteran economic affairs analyst, Oded Shahar, noted that Fischer has not made the content of his complaints about Dankner public, and no one knows exactly why he wanted Dankner ousted.Last year the bank listed a write-off of more than US$1 billion from its involvement in American financial markets.Israel TV showed Dankner entering Monday’s meeting of the board of directors of Bank Hapoalim, but he did not say he was resigning. There was no immediate statement from the bank. -Nampa-AP
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