Coming soon - kosher financial instruments

The highest court of the ultra-Orthodox community, Haredi Badatz in Jerusalem, will award kashrut licenses to various financial instruments to indicate compliance with rabbinic court regulations.

Ultra-orthodox investors often seek to put their money with companies that keep to kashrut laws.

Awarding such licenses to financial instruments such as mutual funds, provident funds and pension funds will allow the ultra-Orthodox sector to invest in them.

"The financial investment market in the Haredi sector has undergone a huge upgrade in the past year. Banks are investing a great deal of resources in marketing and advertisement to this sector, and investment houses are now taking an interest," says Shuky Batist, an initiator of the idea and the manager of advertising agency Tovanot.

His firm caters to Haredi investors and serves as a communications consultant to Badatz.

"The process is a result, among other things, of the increased rate of Haredi employment in the organized workforce. Recent legislation of the pension fund law also served as a catalyst," he said.