Israel Corporations Authority

Unit of the Israeli Ministry of Justice that registers and supervises companies, partnerships and non-profit associations

Israel Corporations Authority (רשות התאגידים)
Type	Government authority within the Israeli Ministry of Justice
Founded	12 March 2006 (government approval)
Founder(s)	Government of Israel, on the proposal of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni
Location	Israel
Area served	Israel
Services	Registers of companies, partnerships, pledges, amutot (non-profit associations), public-benefit companies and endowments; supervision of registered corporations
Key people	Shuli Avni-Shoham (Head of the Authority and Registrar of Companies, appointed 2022)
Website	https://ica.justice.gov.il/
Remarks	The State Comptroller criticised the Registrar of Amutot's supervision in 2017

The Israel Corporations Authority (Hebrew: רשות התאגידים, Rashut HaTa'agidim; officially styled in English the Israeli Corporations Authority, ICA) is the unit of the Israeli Ministry of Justice that registers and supervises corporate bodies in Israel. It brings together the Registrar of Companies, the Registrar of Partnerships, the Registrar of Pledges, the Registrar of Amutot (non-profit associations) and public-benefit companies, and the Registrar of Endowments. The Israeli government approved its creation on 12 March 2006, on the proposal of Justice and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The Authority runs a free online search of registered corporations by number or name. Its registers are basic sources for identifying Israeli companies and non-profit associations, including companies named in the UN database of businesses involved in Israeli settlements and Israeli organisations such as Who Profits. Since 2022 it has been headed by Shuli Avni-Shoham, who also signs company certificates as Registrar of Companies.

History

According to Globes, on 12 March 2006 the government approved a proposal by Tzipi Livni, then Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs, to set up a Corporations Authority. It would combine the ministry's separate registrars dealing with the registration and supervision of corporations: the registrars of amutot, endowments, companies, political parties, pledges, partnerships and business names. The plan came from the ministry's director-general, Aharon Abramovich, as part of a strategic programme that also created a separate Patent Authority. The ministry said the new body would make the registrars more efficient, improve public service, strengthen law enforcement against corporations and give the public "a clear address" for all corporate matters. A law firm's guide to Israeli non-profit law dates the Authority's establishment to April 2006.

Structure and registers

Main registers of the Israel Corporations Authority

Branch	Registrar	Bodies registered
Business	Registrar of Companies (Rasham HaHavarot)	Companies
Business	Registrar of Partnerships	Partnerships
Business	Registrar of Pledges (mashkonot)	Pledges and charges
Non-profit	Registrar of Amutot and Public-Benefit Companies	Amutot (non-profit associations) and public-benefit companies (chalatz)
Non-profit	Registrar of Endowments (hekdeshot)	Public endowments

Sources: Michael Decker & Co. and the Authority's online service.

The head of the Authority is also the Registrar of Amutot. At the time of the State Comptroller's audit in 2016–17, the head of the Authority was Adv. Eyal Globus. The powers of Registrar of Amutot had been delegated to his deputy, Adv. Avital Schreiber, who was responsible for the amutot and public-benefit companies unit. The Comptroller listed the Registrar of Amutot's main legal duties as registering amutot, keeping the register, receiving reports from amutot and making them available to the public, supervising and enforcing proper conduct, and giving guidance.

Heads and senior officials (as reported)

Name	Position	Dates
Eyal Globus	Head of the Corporations Authority	In office at the time of the 2016–17 State Comptroller audit
Avital Schreiber	Deputy head, responsible for the Registrar of Amutot and public-benefit companies	In office at the time of the 2016–17 audit
Shuli Avni-Shoham	Head of the Authority; Registrar of Companies	Appointment announced 1 March 2022; signing as head in February 2026

Gideon Sa'ar, then Justice Minister, announced Avni-Shoham's appointment on 1 March 2022, on the recommendation of a search committee chaired by the ministry's director-general, Eran Davidi. She was then deputy head of the land registration (Tabu) authority. Before that she had headed the Authority's amutot and public-benefit companies division.

Certificate of proper management

Under government decisions of 1998 and 2001, amutot that seek state support or provide paid services to government ministries must present a certificate of proper management (ishur nihul takin) from the Registrar of Amutot. The Registrar may withhold the certificate and impose sanctions, ranging from fines to liquidation proceedings.

Public information and open data

The Authority's online service lets anyone search companies by corporation number or name free of charge. Results show the company type and status, whether it is marked as a law-violating company (mafera hok) and its annual report status. The service warns that the data may be incomplete, inaccurate or out of date, and that the full corporate file is a paid service. The Ministry of Justice also publishes datasets on data.gov.il covering registered amutot, public-benefit companies, certificates of proper management and donations from foreign state entities. For example, the amutot register records Who Profits (R.A.) as amuta 580581411, registered on 3 December 2013.

Controversies and conflicts

State Comptroller's 2017 report on the Registrar of Amutot

In Annual Report 67B (2017), the State Comptroller of Israel found serious weaknesses in the Registrar of Amutot's work:

• Registration delays: the target for registering an amuta with standard articles was 10 working days, but in 2015 the average was 49 calendar days. About 10% of applications took more than three months, and one took more than three years.
• Non-reporting amutot: more than 20,000 of the roughly 40,000 registered amutot did not report to the Registrar, contrary to the law. The Registrar had no information on their activities and did not apply sanctions.
• Certificate of proper management: the certificate rested only on a government decision, not on law or regulations. It was sometimes issued to amutot with management problems without any qualification noted on it.
• In-depth audits: the number of in-depth audits begun fell by about 60%, from 266 in 2011 to 108 in 2016. Audits took about 24 months on average.
• Complaints and systems: in 2014–15, 18 complaints took more than three years to handle. Amutot could not file reports online, as companies could with the Registrar of Companies. The Registrar had no computer link to the Population Authority to check founders' identity numbers.

The Comptroller noted that the Ministry of Justice had prepared a memorandum of law to put the certificate of proper management on a statutory footing, but it had been in internal processes for five years and had not been circulated.

See also

• Who Profits
• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Companies House
• UK companies linked to 'Israel'