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Barclays Launches Financial R&D Center in Israel

As reported in Globes.co.il: Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz: This is an important day for the Israeli economy.

“This is definitely an important day for the Israeli economy. Over 30 years ago, a company called Intel decided to set up in Israel a small unit with 20 scientists. The result was that very large high-tech companies came here, and Israel became a global R&D center for the international high-tech industry,” said Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz at the ceremony to announce the establishment of Barclays Bank’s R&D center.”Today, one of the world’s most important banks is coming to Israel to set up an R&D center with 200 scientists of banking and financial technologies. We have no doubt that this is a first step, which will be followed by other banks. We have no doubt that this is the beginning of a new age that will turn Israel into an R&D center for financial technologies.”

Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer told Barclays Bank’s CEO, “This is an important act by Barclays, or else Barclays would not have come here. But it is also important for us, because today’s event is the start of a process to develop Israel as an R&D center in a slightly different field from classic high tech, in which, at least so far, we’ve achieved success.

“When looking at the export of goods, the growth rate is slow, but when looking at the export of services, we see a faster growth rate. This is a win-win situation, first for the companies that come, and the second win for Israel. We are bringing the big world here.

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