פייסבוק חושפת את Timeline: החיים שלכם על דף אחד

The manager of Bank Hapoalim's (TASE: POLI ) credit division, Shai Talmon, couldn't have hoped to start the year with a better headline than he got yesterday, in large type, in Ma'ariv.

Businessmen, whom Ma'ariv revealed but did not name, complained to Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama about Talmon's heartless credit policy.

Talmon is ruining their business, they griped. "Bank Hapoalim, which in the past had courted us, is bearing down hard. It may be because of Talmon's lack of experience in this area. Now they're demanding more securities, won't give us a chance to develop, and refuse our credit applications," the businessmen complained to Ma'ariv.

The story brought to mind the anecdote about Edmond Safra, of blessed memory, who launched one of the most successful banking empires in the world even though he hardly ever lent money and invested most of the bank's resources in safe assets ¿ mainly government bonds.

But from time to time, even Safra would come a cropper on a loan, usually not involving serious amounts. He might fall, but he'd never admit that bad loans are part of the game for commercial banks.

When Safra would learn that a loan of more than a million dollars had soured, he'd hop onto a plane, go straight to the branch that gave the money, convene the board and workers, and announce, "I want to know who stole the money."

Investigations like that aren't necessary in Israel. We know perfectly well "who stole the money".

In the last five years, Israel's bankers chased after leading businessmen, vying to see who could extend the most credit for the least profit and based on the smallest collateral. They lavished loans for leveraged buyouts, investment in real estate, hotels and telecommunications, with the common thread of low interest rates, little shareholders equity, and negligible collateral that failed to reflect the risk inherent in the deals.

It is a new era, and fresh winds are blowing through the banking establishment. In the case of Bank Hapoalim, there's also a new management that isn't bound by decisions of predecessors, or by friendships going back years. It's little wonder that the bank's customers are bitterly disappointed by Shai Talmon.

2. Amiram Sivan

When Sivan served as Hapoalim's chief executive, nobody was complaining about his behavior to the chairman. At least, not in the form reported by Ma'ariv. Sivan used to say that when the going got tough, the bank would stand by the side of its customers, mainly the big ones.

The tremendous loan Hapoalim company Continental Bank extended to the Peled-Givony group comprised 70% of its capital and all but wiped out its shareholders equity. The loan and its aftermath are a wretched conclusion to the career of Sivan, who had served as Continental's chairman, with credit committee chairman Hannah Rosenberg at his right hand.

But Sivan, who collected pay in the tens of millions of shareholders while heading Hapoalim during the good years, a time when massive loans were considered a criteria of success ¿ has left the pain-wracked credit portfolios of Continental and Hapoalim far behind. He has skipped off to start a new life.

Yesterday Sivan officially announced his first initiative. Together with Aharon Dovrat and Eliezer Fishman, he means to raise between $100 million and $150 million for a fund that will invest in real estate.

Fishman and Dovrat have traveled a long road with Sivan, who for years was the strongest and most esteemed man in the banking system. Their current teaming up is not surprising.

What may surprise is the fund's target: to invest in properties in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In all, property prices have been soaring, sometimes to a degree that arouses worry of a bubble.

Sivan, who knows the Israeli economy, banking system and real estate market inside out, could theoretically have launched a fund to invest in Israeli properties. He could have decided to exploit the real estate crisis and credit crunch crushing the developers.

Or he could have launched a fund to invest in troubled Israeli companies, or a fund that would exploit the credit crunch in the Israeli banking establishment.

But Sivan elected to create a fund that will invest exclusively abroad, in markets where his vast experience and contacts bring no edge. He has chosen to operate in tremendous, sophisticated oceans where even seasoned tycoons like himself, Dovrat and Fishman are guppies.

Maybe Sivan & Co believe that despite the climb in real estate prices abroad, it is easier to raise money for investment in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

But maybe it indicates that Sivan simply shares the opinion that every man-jack on the Israeli stock exchange has about the banks' deteriorating credit portfolios, and the chance of a wave of bankruptcies in the real estate market.