One out of four small or medium-sized businesses in Israel are expected to be affected in a fourth wave of pandemic restrictions. Tens of thousands of businesses are expected to go bankrupt in the fourth COVID-19 wave, according to Oded Chen who is a top lawyer in the field of insolvency, bankruptcy and debt write-offs.
With the outbreak of the fourth wave, the expected debt value in businesses will reach an additional NIS 4 billion if restrictions are introduced that will harm the revenues of businesses. These businesses barely survived the third wave and are already operating in overdraft.
In 2020, approximately 24,000 debt and legal aid cases were opened, of which 9,900 were bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings of individuals (not companies).
It is estimated that the value of individuals’ debt portfolios in 2020 was NIS 7 billion.