Business in Brief

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss is examining the universities' financial state as a result of the world economic crisis. He has asked the universities, mostly state-funded, to provide information on fund-raising, budgets and investments, and will write a report on the matter. Lindenstrauss will also investigate how Tel Aviv University managed its investment portfolio during the crisis. The university's executive council, chaired by Leora Meridor, ordered the sell off all its stock and bond holdings in March this year near the bottom of the market, even though the university's investment committee objected. There are conflicting estimates on the monetary damage from the sale - the university estimates that if it had continued to hold the portfolio it would have another NIS 66 million, while one investment committee member says the difference is in the hundreds of millions. (Zvi Zrahiya)

Do you understand the terms of your private health insurance? It seems very few people do, so the Finance Ministry's commissioner of insurance and capital markets, Yadin Antebi, wants to change that. He is putting together new regulations to take effect in July that require insurers to send out a regular set of reports to their clients. There are two types of private health insurance outside of the large HMOs: group and individual policies. Antebi wants people with group policies, usually provided through the workplace, to receive more and better information on exactly what they are entitled to. The problem is that such policies are generally agreed to between the insurer and either the employer or the union. Their advantage is the price and expanded coverage, as well as the insurer's inability to change terms for those insured even if their medical situations change. But quite often there is a conflict of interest between the union or the employer and the insured employees, who don't know what their policies cover. (Noam Bar)

A former head of the Israel Air Force, Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer Shkedi, is among the leading candidates to replace Haim Romano as El Al's chief executive. But he is not the only former IAF commander whose name has been bandied about for the job. Dan Halutz, who has also served as chief of staff, has been mentioned too. Another former general on the list is Brig. Gen. (res.) Udi Zohar, a former head of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority. Other people on the list include Liad Cohen, until recently Tnuva's CEO. El Al's deputy chairwoman and one of its controlling shareholders, Tamar Mozes Borovitz, has told an official at the airline that "the new CEO will come from outside of El Al." (Zohar Blumenkrantz)

After dropping all week, the dollar rose Thursday evening after the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, announced he was leaving October interest rates unchanged at 0.75%. On Friday the dollar rose almost 1% to a representative rate of NIS 3.77, even though the greenback was mixed in trading against major world currencies that day. Last week the representative rate had fallen to NIS 3.70, a level last seen in December. The euro rose 0.3% against the shekel Friday to a representative rate of NIS5.53. However, Union Bank economists say the main effect on the shekel-dollar rate will remain the dollar's moves in world markets; the bank says the U.S. currency will continue to weaken as the U.S. budget deficit grows. Union Bank says Fischer is allowing the exchange rate to fall but is slowing the pace while keeping a gap from opening between the exchange rate and the shekel's true value. At Leumi they expect the dollar to keep on falling, while Bank Hapoalim analysts expect further rate increases by the end of the year. (Yael Halak)

Not all Israelis will be spending the fast in synagogues: The number going abroad for a Yom Kippur vacation has been rising steadily over the years. About 20,000 people are expected to travel for the fast day tomorrow. Most are keeping to sites near home in the Mediterranean such as Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, though many are going to European cities such as Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, Rome and Paris. The numbers are up about 15% this year over last, said a major travel Internet site. Israelis are also taking vacations locally, as many are combining the weekend with the holiday for a four- or five-day vacation. (Irit Rosenblum)