The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Launches a Specialized Innovative Digital Service - Exercise of Employee Stock Options in Click

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: TASE) announces the launch of a new specialized service that allows public companies with employee stock option plans to digitally exercise employee stock options. The service will be provided by TASE's Nominee Company and is designated for companies that are listed on TASE and registered with the Nominee Company. 

This innovative service offers listed companies a secure digital, easy and quick way to exercise employee stock options without drafting and printing documents, signing them manually and having them delivered by courier.

The service streamlines and significantly shortens the duration of the process from the employee's submission of an exercise application to the deposit of the new shares in the employee's securities account. The new process was created in cooperation with Israel's leading trust firms and is compatible with similar processes implemented globally.

The new service of exercise of employee stock options at a click of a button offers many advantages, including: a more efficient and significantly shorter process of handling employees' exercise applications, reduced exposure to buy-in resulting from delayed closing of the short position, better standard of service to the employees, reduced operational risks due to typing errors, saving on express delivery costs and protection of the environment (paperless).

Orly Grinfeld, EVP, Head of Clearing at TASE, said: "We are proud to be launching this service, which is a direct extension of TASE's strategic plan of offering more digital and innovative products and services to companies and capital market players. The coronavirus crisis has made it imperative to digitize and streamline processes designated for public companies. This step will allow companies, for the first time, to exercise employee stock options in an efficient and fully automated manner, free of cumbersome bureaucracy, all to the benefit of both employees and management."

As previously reported, TASE's Nominee Company, which was established in early 2018, introduced the digital registration of securities by listed companies, obviating the use of physical certificates.

About the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Nominee Company

The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Nominee Company Ltd. was established in January 2018 as part of the TASE Group. For the first time in Israel, the TASE Nominee Company provides digital registration services instead of physical certificates, in line with the accepted global practice.

The TASE Nominee Company provides services to companies listed on TASE and to all ETFs traded on TASE.

In 2019, a dedicated digital portal was launched, which enables the secure digital upload of documents between the Nominee Company and its customers - "Portal of the Nominee Company".

For additional information: https://info.tase.co.il/lpages/nomineecompany/english/index.html

Contact:

Orna Goren
Head of Communication and Public Relations Unit
Tel: +972-76-8160405
[email protected]

SOURCE The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Ltd.