Thousands of British savers who had Icesave accounts operated by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki in the UK are expected to get their money back within ten days, MBL.is reports.
A spokesman from the UK’s FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) said in an interview with The Guardian yesterday evening that every effort is now being made to deal with the Icesave issue as quickly as possible, with a view to having reimbursements completed by the end of November.
This news comes at the end of a difficult three-week period when British Landsbanki Icesave customers were unsure on when they would be able to access their savings again.
Approximately 300,000 Icesave savings accounts were opened with Landsbanki in the UK, with total deposits in the region of GBP 4 billion, or approximately ISK 750 billion.
British Icesave customers will receive all their money back, including interest, according to FSCS sources.
“The Government has guaranteed 100% of all deposits held by retail depositors of Icesave and has said that people will not lose their tax status for their ISAs. FSCS expects to launch the process in ten days time. Our top priorities are to give Icesave customers some certainty and to move to a speedy payout as quickly as possible.”
This doesn’t sound like Iceland is paying ANYTHING, not even the 20000€ they guaranteed. Looks like the UK government picks up the whole bill. Nothing to brag about, Icelanders, quite to the contrary!
Link for the quote above:
http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/
Btw, Icenews, shouldn’t you have made clear that Iceland isn’t paying anything? This is somewhat misleading reporting, imho.
Why should Icelandic government pay for company’s that is not run by the Icelandic government ? Should Britt’s government pay the bill for company’s that is not run by Britt’s government if they goes bankrupt?
Gray, Germany: what’s your point? what are you trying to achieve with your lousy posts?
The reporting is very correct, there are no wrong facts in it. News at Icenews are usually shortish almost blogg like, if people wants to konw more they can always look up the details.
Thats Two misleading articles that has been made.Iceland has nothing to do with this repayment whatsoever.I wonder why Iceland has been slated over this whole mess you can’t even report the facts right!!
@Saevar. The Icelandic government guaranteed the first ~20k euros. They had to do this for Icesave to operate in the UK (or indeed anywhere in Europe).
The UK government guaranteed everything above that up to £35k. That was increased just before Icesave collapsed to £50k. After the collapse, the UK government further increased to guarantee to 100%, although that did not absolve the Icelandic government of resposibility for the first ~20k euros.
Clear now?
What is worrying is the way the lcelandic Government has renegade on the guarantee’s, no excuses they deserve all they get.
UK goverment have done correct thing and stood by their obligations and are paying icesave customers back in November.
We are very lucky to get our money back and we should live political issues aside…The real culprit is sheer greed and irresponsibility!!!
Bankers have become bunkers!
Bromley86 – You are wasting your time. These Icelanders have been brainwashed by their government. The only way Iceland will understand that they have upset many people is by those people refusing to support Icelandic businesses.
We are now into our second week of the boycott and from talks with others, this boycott is growing in strength.
Hit them where it hurts – in their pockets. Then maybe the thieves will realise that they have done wrong.
”British Icesave customers will receive all their money back, including interest, according to FSCS sources.”
This last paragraph of the article isn’t strictly true. The FSCS have stated that interest will only be paid until the date of default (8th Oct). Assuming I get my money back by the end of November, I will have lost approximately £340 due to the closure of Icesave. The loss of interest could run into several hundreds or thousands of pounds for some depositors.
You are seriously ret*rded shaw, we dont need to do any busyness with uk in the future, this argument isnt about money anymore, im sure we will pay what we need to pay as soon as we can,
its funny that you britts think you can call us thieves, im sure you never have been accused of anything like that, or murders or genocides or putting defencelss people into slavery , all your neighbours hate you and have a bl**dy good reason to.
To the reckless and dishonest Icelandic government:
You made guarantees but knew there was neither the means nor the will to honour them. Now you must suffer the consequences.
We are going to liquidate your assets and boycott whatever Icelandic owned businesses you have left in the UK.
And if the bill still remains unsettled we will seize your fishing waters.
Your economy will be put back 100 years.
If you google “British genocide ” you will get 4.160.000 answers
Bulldog66
all the Icelandic companys in UK have almost only british people working for them,
about the fishing waters, you have already tryed to seize them a few times an failed miserbly
and how do you know the intent of the Icelandic government ?
i dont know what they are thinking
And if you google “Icelandic genocide” you get 579,000 answers. Now, as your population is 0.5% of ours, that means that you’re immeasurably more evil than us.
As an aside, did you know that there are 418,000 answers when you google “Axel idiot”?
>>If you google “British genocide ” you will get 4.160.000 answers
I did, and got 1880 answers.
Icelandic thieves returns 547000 hits.
Your point being?
‘We are going to liquidate your assets and boycott whatever Icelandic owned businesses you have left in the UK’
GROW UP!
thats a great way of getting your money back! go ahead boycott whatever is left after brown seized and sold icelandic assests. im sure you are buying lots of things that you dont even know came from iceland :)
it is mostly brits on here complaining and slagging off iceland and icelanders. you all need to grow up.
Please, folks, calm down. It’s hurting to see people quarrel like that. Neither are the Icelandic people or their government reckless nor needs Britain to be ashamed of its history. (Far from it! As a German I am very happy indeed that Britain and the United States brought Nazi-Germany down and that they introduced free press and a free market society in Germany.)
It is abundantly clear that BOTH sides – Britain and Iceland – have made some mistakes. The British government maybe should not have been so verbally strong as it has been. Yet the mistakes that caused the current troubles were actually made by Icelandic bankers and by Icelandic authorities who did not intervene even when it became clear what a potential threat to the well-being of the Icelandic society the incredible huge seize of the banking sector has become.
I really think, therefore, that the prime target of Icelandic anger should not be directed towards Britain that was certainly not causing the downfall of the Icelandic banks, but towards their own government. (After all, the German authorities also froze the money of Kaupthing Edge.)
Thanks for the British government for looking after their people, following the Icelandic government’s dishonouring or not clear to be honouring their promise for compensation of the first 20K euros. It seems the UK is picking up the mess from the miserable malmanaged Icelandic banking sectors and their government’s compensation scream not scheme who have only supported their Icelandic people. We are here in the UK also need to use our saved money to live by and for day-to-day expenses, we have trusted our money with these Icelandic banks and their so-call legal compensation pay-out … what a joke!
Please stop using the UK decisions against the assets as escape goat and excuse for your wrong doing and bad management.
One thing will happen for sure: We are here in the UK will never trust any foriegn bank with our money and investment any more, particularly the Icelandic banks. I am sure the Dutchs, the Germans and others would have the same opinion. Just think what a terrible impact that will have on the Icelandic economy, sorry for the Icelanders who have to suffer these consequences. If only once you do not meet your legal and moral obligations and be clear from the word go, there will be no second chance as you have lost the confidence and trust of people who trade with you. I am really sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but if I could have put it in a different way I would have done
Both Icelandic and British people are blameless. Don’t see the point in bashing each other when we’re all in the same boat. The real culprits (ie. Bank Boards of directors and the incompetent regulators) are still there with their cushy jobs and pensions getting away ‘scot free’. Someone should name and shame the people involved in this fraudulent scam. Hit them where it hurts, sack them and confiscate all their assets to repay those they defrauded.
>On Oct 26, 2008, ray wrote:
>What is worrying is the way the lcelandic Government has renegade on the guarantee’s,
>no excuses they deserve all they get.
Repeating a lie again and again does not make it true, and certainly not a lie as big as this.
I can understand that when the lie comes from the mouth of a government minister and the Prime Minister (yes my old son I do mean Darling and Brown) then people are going to believe it (at least for a while), and then experience cognitive dissonance* as they discover the truth.
>UK goverment have done correct thing and stood by their obligations and are paying
>icesave customers back in November.
If you think the correct thing is to tell the world a big lie, then freeze assets and force a solvent bank into receivership based on that lie, then I would hate to hear what you think the wrong thing is.
I don’t think any reasonable person begrudges depositors getting their monies back. Why would they? It’s your money after all. But the Icelandic government as it has from the start agreed that it will pay its part of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) if things went bad. This was also exactly what was promised in the Landsbanki IceSave account documents, website, and elsewhere. So your assertion about ‘renaging’ is totally and completely false.
That Darling also has frozen assets up to that amount to pay depositors with and thus does not have to dip into tax payer’s pockets, of course is not to be glossed over. No doubt they will be ‘utilized’ for this purpose as that is good politics for Brown and Darling and to hell with the UK charities and local authorities, other foreign creditors, etc, etc.
While individual depositors can be happy for the Chancellor’s largess in these guarantees (even though of course it was an on-the-fly decision taken for entirely political reasons during the BBC radio interview) ultimately Brown’s ‘bail out’** of all other UK banks isn’t going to work.
This massive waste of future tax money is only going to prolong the financial meltdown (much as Japan did during its ‘lost decade’ of ‘zombie banks’) and create massive inflation. Banks still don’t trust each other, and the main effect is going to be that they think they can continue to take big risks, knowing that the taxpayer is going to be be knocked on the head to pay for it.
*On cognitive dissonance: “when someone is called upon to learn something which contradicts what they already think they know — particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge — they are likely to resist the new learning.”
**As poster GreatDane mentioned in another thread here, the idea for the bail out looks to have come from Swedish ex-Minister of Finance Pär Nuder who explained to Brown the mixed results of such actions in Sweden during that nation’s crisis of 1992-1993. Certainly Brown did not come up with it himself.
>On Oct 26, 2008, Simon Shaw wrote:
>Bromley86 – You are wasting your time. These Icelanders have been brainwashed by
>their government.
You don’t *really* believe that do you Mr Shaw?
I would say judging by the posts I see that many British people have trusted their own politicians a bit too much on face value over this matter and as I have said are experiencing cognitive dissonance as they discover the truth.
And who can really blame them?
Brown and Darling are after all, in the top spots at the head of the UK government, and as such we should all expect a high standard of probity from them. But sadly they have not lived up to that high standard.
If you do actually care about the facts, see the posts here to start with:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/11/the-british-brought-down-icelands-largest-company-with-their-abuse-of-power/#comment-31120
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/16/unbowed-icelandic-pm-sends-a-strong-message-to-uk/#comment-28314
>The only way Iceland will understand that they have upset many
>people is by those people refusing to support Icelandic businesses.
>
>We are now into our second week of the boycott and from talks with others, this boycott
>is growing in strength.
>
>Hit them where it hurts – in their pockets. Then maybe the thieves will realise that they
>have done wrong.
I think perhaps you do not realize how much worse off Icelanders are since the collapse of the banks. Are you one of those that believes in kicking someone in the head when they are down?
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/11/the-british-brought-down-icelands-largest-company-with-their-abuse-of-power/#comment-31120
Calling Icelanders thieves is not borne out by the facts, and of course highly offensive, and guaranteed to get an emotional response out of Icelanders posting here. But that’s your point in saying it, isn’t it Mr Shaw?
I will ignore the obvious trolls such as those of ‘Bulldog66’ which don’t even dignify a response.
(I have had my doubts for some time that several of the posts being made across the different threads here are not from actual British people, but from professional trolls. And as the actual facts come out the posts become more shrill and intended to elicit an emotional response. It has the disinfo smell to it.)
Let’s remind ourselves of the facts.
Even the mainstream media in the UK is reporting on them a little more now* but I doubt there will be much balanced reporting there alas until later. Of course any journalist who reports fully on this matter sooner than the others will no doubt have a real scoop and boost their career compated with their supine colleagues. Or, has a DA-Notice already been issued on this matter? Not that we’d ever know of course…
*Financial Times: Transcript challenges Darling’s claim over Iceland compensation
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4d74e1aa-a163-11dd-82fd-000077b07658.html
The Icelandic government has always, did then, and now, always maintained it would pay under its EU directive 94/19/EC obligations – a minimum deposit guarantee for savers of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) for each account holder, foreign or not.
Darling lied when cornered in the infamous BBC radio and TV interviews and made policy on-the-fly, writing a blank cheque for tax payers regarding IceSave.
Brown then escalated based on this obvious lie. A lie that led to the freezing of assets of Landsbanki, and the seizing of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander by the UK’s FSA, ironically at almost the same hour that Kaupthing’s management was awaiting incoming wires that would have without a shadow of a doubt demonstrated its solvency.
Landsbanki was placed on a list of regimes subject to financial sanction by the British government as you would expect as the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was used. It joined Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and several other organisations or countries known for terrorist financing or oppressive dictatorship.
(Only after the campaign of the ‘Icelanders are not Terrorists’ website did they backtrack a little and modify the list, but it is so clear that this law and list was not designed for use for a purpose such as this. It’s an abuse of it, pure and simple:
http://www.indefence.is/News/News/~/NewsId/13 )
Despite assurances to the contrary when it was passed, this law was clearly meant to be used against whoever the government feels like using it against. It is an abomination and should be repealed.
As well as the obvious “Falklands moment” Brown’s actions serve a further purpose. That purpose is to crush the credibility of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) in time for the Scottish Glenrothes by-election, and beyond. Brown is MP for next-door Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, and the SNP now hold a minority government in the Scottish Parliament. This has been a huge thorn in Brown’s side for over a year.
One of the SNP’s planks for Scottish independence is joining the “arc of prosperity”, of which Iceland is a large part. Brown and his attack dogs can now attack Salmond with vigor after having conveniently demolished Iceland’s economy.
Brown took a lie by Darling and opportunistically turned it into British government policy in order to gain political capital against the Scottish Labour party’s enemies in Scotland.
Just Google for any of Brown and Scottish Labour’s recent speeches about the SNP. They are not exactly being subtle about this, primarily because they think they have got away with it.
Darling is a lier but Brown is in many ways far worse, a cheap opportunist without a conscience.
Many in the Foreign Service are absolutely disgusted with Brown in particular.
The obvious abuses of power for political gain, and the casualness with which it was done has angered many across party lines.
(After all, the German authorities also froze the money of Kaupthing Edge.)
But the German people are not calling us all theifs or wishing Iceland to sink or be blown up!
and to othes… we know who’s fault it is. we know what happened better then you do with our banking system. it is not being ignored by icelanders. At this moment the every day normal hard working icelander is just trying to survive day to day right now and not knowing what tomorrow brings is not a good feeling. without all the verbal abuse coming out of UK.
write your complaints to the people who made this mess including brown and darling!
On Oct 26, 2008, Peter (Germany) wrote
>Yet the mistakes that caused the current troubles were actually made by Icelandic
>bankers and by Icelandic authorities who did not intervene even when it became clear
>what a potential threat to the well-being of the Icelandic society the incredible huge
>seize of the banking sector has become.
Certainly it can be argued that the nationalization attempt of Glitnir made things worse.
Landsbanki was probably a week away from obtaining and injecting a large amount of money into its UK branch when the Glitnir announcement hit.
>I really think, therefore, that the prime target of Icelandic anger should not be directed
>towards Britain that was certainly not causing the downfall of the Icelandic banks
I would agree that Glitnir and Landsbanki were stopped dead by the complete freeze up in lending to Icelandic financial institutions after the Glitnir announcement, but Kaupthing – the biggest bank, and company in Iceland – was destroyed by the actions of Darling and Brown. Period.
Without their actions it would have survived, and probably would have taken over the operations of Landsbanki including all of its liabilities.
Darling and Brown were not that poorly briefed, as I have stated elsewhere, they just decided to acted in extreme bad faith, Brown for purely opportunistic political reasons after Darling brought the big lie into being.
There is a reason why all of the other countries with effected deposits reacted entirely differently than Brown-Darling (Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Norway).
Do you not perhaps ask yourself, in your quieter moments, the question why?
After thorough and extensive research into the Icelandic banking collapse, I was shocked to discover the following:
Icesave was set up in the UK by Landsbanki two years ago to prop up the bank’s liquidity. It was destined for failure due to the bank’s rising debts – Landsbanki knew this failure would occur.
The highly successful advertisements in the UK promising high interest rates with added financial security attracted some 300,000 accounts from British depositors.
Icesave gave both verbal and written statements to depositors reassuring them they were in a very strong financial position right up until hours before the bank’s collapse – the managing director Mark Sismey-Durran even appeared on BBC television to reassure savers of the bank’s strong position shortly before the bank’s default.
The I.T. Company responsible for Icesave’s web design have not been paid fully for their work – they are owed tens of thousands of pounds.
Landsbanki and the Icelandic authorities have given no apology whatsoever for the grave inconvenience and hardship caused to their depositors and investors – not to mention the hardship now suffered by the Icelandic people.
As a direct result of the insolvency of Icesave, 30 or so Landsbanki executives are multi-millionaires. They have since been dismissed from the bank.
The actions of the Icelandic PM and government during this whole debacle have been nothing short of despicable. The failure to honour a legal obligation (up to the first 20k euros of each account)will ensure that no country will want to do business with Iceland for generations to come.
The UK offered Iceland a loan to save face and use for the compensation, but the Icelandic government rejected, preferring instead to renege on its legal and moral responsibilities like the selfish, thieving regime it has proved to the world to be.
I was angry when it seemed I had lost a lot of money in Icesave, even angrier when my partial withdrawals were reversed. This was simple theft!. I am grateful to the UK government for rescuing my situation but give no thanks to the Icelandic authorities for their default. To the Icelandic people I feel sadness as they must now suffer the errors of their regulators and the consequences of this in terms of ill will that should not be due to the ordinary people of Iceland. Unfortunately allthough I would like to visit Iceland again I will not be doing so in the forseeable future.
dg
The act everyone calls the “Terrosim Act” covers more than terroism. It specifically includes actions to the detriment of the UK economy. Please would both sides actually read the paragraph of the act which applies:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2001/ukpga_20010024_en_2#pt2-pb1-l1g4
Para 4. Freezing orders
(1) The Treasury may make a freezing order if the following two conditions are satisfied.
(2) The first condition is that the Treasury reasonably believe that—
(a) action to the detriment of the United Kingdom’s economy (or part of it) has been or is likely to be taken by a person or persons, or
(b) action constituting a threat to the life or property of one or more nationals of the United Kingdom or residents of the United Kingdom has been or is likely to be taken by a person or persons.
(3) If one person is believed to have taken or to be likely to take the action the second condition is that the person is—
(a) the government of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, or
(b) a resident of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom.
(4) If two or more persons are believed to have taken or to be likely to take the action the second condition is that each of them falls within paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (3); and different persons may fall within different paragraphs.
Please please can we stop the slanging match and concentrate on whether there were acts detrimental to the UK economy. And to be fair, was the UK response proportionate? ie did UK inflict damage on the Iceland econonmy that was unreasonable in the circumstances?
I wish someone could track for me exactly where the savers money went. Were the Icelandic banks abroad sending some savers money back to Iceland, or was it the other way as possibly impied above Iceland was sending money to UK to invest or to make good the banks poor loans/investments in UK.
I think that the Icelandic government are a bunch of idi*ts, ever sice they were elected, but to tell you the truth they will probably be replaced soon with a brand new set of idi*ts, most likely from the left wing of politics, wich is not a improvement, all 3 central bank directors will be fired, but im sure nothing will happen until after this cools down, most likely next year,
the banks were working under EEU rules so there was nothing we here in Iceland could do to stop them, no money ever came to Iceland, all of it was invested elswhere, the reason you got your high interest rate on your savings is that we were paying the highest interest rates in the world on our loans, the reason why Iceland had no dept is high taxes and almot every one here has two jobs
i have had two jobs for 20 years,
there is 1% unemploiment here, that may change now
but it has been like that for a long time
ive been a bit stupid myself because i let trolls wind me up, i will try to be smarter in the future
@William.
You obviously know a fair amount about the situation (good luck BTW), but I can’t agree with your statement:
“The Icelandic government has always, did then, and now, always maintained it would pay under its EU directive 94/19/EC obligations – a minimum deposit guarantee for savers of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) for each account holder, foreign or not.”
Haarde was quite clear to avoid answering the question when asked by reporters. He may have felt that it wasn’t his place, although of course it was.
However, Mathiesen was very clear. I’m not sure how you managed to miss it in you in-depth posting that you linked to, but the following lines are, to my mind, very important:
***
Darling: So the entitlements the people have, which I think is about sixteen thousand pounds, they will be paid that?
Mathiesen: Well, I hope that will be the case. I cannot visibly state that or guarantee that now, but we are certainly working to solve this issue.
***
Note the “cannot . . . guarantee” with regards to the UK savers £16k. Now I know you can make people say whatever you want by carefully cutting and pasting, but even if I reposted the entire transcript, that’s pretty clear. Either it is a guarantee or it is not – an intent to guarantee is simply not good enough.
I’ve not seen the letter that is referred to, so can’t comment directly on that. Either way though, you have the PM avoiding the question, the governor of the central bank saying that they won’t take on the debts of the bank (I know, not directly related to this as they were not required to, but it would have been a good time to underscore that the £16k guarantee would be honoured) and, most damning, the FM saying that he cannot guarantee that the £16k will be paid.
I hope that the few in Iceland that set this financial pyramid system up, end up in prison for the rest of their miserable lives and all of their assets taken by the Icelandic government.
But since you Brits do not care about the majority of the Icelanders who have nothing to do with this and were in the dark about this problem, then why should they care about you. I am sure they lost more than you Brits have.
Personally I blame your hot head PM Brown for a lot of this mess. His big mouth made things worse that it should have, so let the British government cover the extra costs involved. It’s their fault anyway, for the run on the bank.
By the way, wouldn’t it be funny that if the Icelanders end up having to go to Russia for help (financial and political) and later find the need to offer them the closed American airbase in Keflavik for protection from England, and maybe a new cold war starts up, we can all thank PM Brown for the new world order. He would have made America helping Europe in a crisis much more difficult. Maybe the Americans will sit out the next one.
I think that would be hilarious, don’t you.
@Dave G (UK) :”Unfortunately allthough I would like to visit Iceland again I will not be doing so in the forseeable future.”
You are making a huge mistake, now is the time to go. Finally Iceland is within economic reach for ordinary people.
Try googling “french military victories” and press the “I’m feeling lucky” button..
And has everyone heard the joke that’s doing the rounds?
Q: What’s the capital of Iceland?
A: About £1.50
You have to laugh..
It suprises me that British papers have not made more of the leaked trascript of the actual conversation between Darling and the Icelandinc minister of finance.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4d74e1aa-a163-11dd-82fd-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
If you will have been in Iceland during minority protests against the dumb and protest against voice to backup US in Iraq war and so many more scandals, we will definitely have seen beside all that, that ICELANDIC citizens still wanted their government, still didn’t want any changes and keep the old hypocrite way. Big part of the population new what was going on, and all the risks and excesses going on in the financial and political system. But nobody stood to go against it.
Like sequestered or cheeps, everybody lost their rights dealing with the Devil.
Unlike Michael S, I think there are a lot of people to blame in this crisis!
I have to agree with John Davidson with is comments. A lot of rich Icelanders are keeping safe on their sofas laughing and drinking beer. I know personally few of them… And some are even quite comfortable under the Caribbean sun!
The only deserved result here, it’s to hand up the National authority to an international government. By all the financial abuses done in the past, Icelanders are definitely incapable to manage their own money, and worse, the money coming from abroad.
>Finally Iceland is within economic reach for ordinary people.
Not true, its still ridiculously expensive even at the 150kr to Euro exchange rate.
If its reverts to the market price of 300kr to the Euro it would be affordable, but not cheap.
“But the Icelandic government as it has from the start agreed that it will pay its part of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) if things went bad.”
Things ARE bad. Where is the money? It’s not in the guarantee fund, and the Icelandic government has made no effort so far to put it in. All the international credits they secured in the last days seem to be going elsewhere. That’s not what is commonly understood as ‘keeping one’s word’, and only expressing the hope to be able to pay isn’t a guarantee at all, no matter how you call it.
To William Watson: You seem to have something against Brown and Darling, this is up to you. I am not a politician and have not voted for any Party in UK in recent years. I am sorry to say your analysis is poor and ill presented without discovering all facts, please read the replies from other commentators around you. However, you are right Scotland would be in the same situation as Iceland if their banks (Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS) have not been fully bailed out by the UK government and British tax payers, the SNP must be grateful for that and thank God for being part of UK. Iceland on the other hand is alone, and chose to be alone, rejecting to be a full member of EU and the single currency …. Now they are paying the price for using our hard earned money to boost their economy over the last few years with one of the top GDPs in the world. The honey moon has ended now and it is a pay-back time. BUT what it makes me very sad that the Icelanders will have to suffer the consequences of their false banking system/economy and their government’s poor handling their legal and moral obligation. Although, they. the Icelandic people, are still able to access their money (it is our money in fact) in their accounts, while we are here in the UK can not, which makes some of us meeting our day-to-day living expenses very tough.
ONE THING THOUGH REALLY UPSETS ME, SOME ICELANDERS HAD GATHERED SIGNATURES AND DEMONSTARTED AGAINST UK DECISION OF FREEZING THEIR BANKS’ ASSETS, BUT NONE HAS DEMONSTARTED AGAINST THEIR MISEARBLE BADLY MANAGED BANKING SECTORS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT’S HANDLING THE MATTER. No matter what? We are the UK savers grateful to the British government for refunding our money in full, they said that from the word go, unlike the Icelandic authorities who did not know what to say or do … and this is the fact.
wow i see that Shaw and others that nothing has changed and you are the very reason poeple are not proud to be british, has any noticed no capital B in british , because britian is off no importance in this world. i lived in Iceland for 20 years, and now what im going to do is start selling Icelandic products to the world. Like fish, lamb and chickens that are a year old with no steriods in them, why dont the guys here do some studies on what the truth is then talk,
“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”
Kaupthing was reversing withdrawals on Monday 6th Oct. When ICESAVE Closed on Tuesday 7th Oct there was a huge surge in withdrawals from Kaupthing. By Wed 8th Oct Kaupthing UK was unable to meet its obligations – and the parent bank could not support it. There have been a lot of losers from this including UK savers and taxpayers, offshore savers and not least the people of ICELAND. It is surely time for the ICELANDIC Government to go after the people responsible for false accounting and seek maximum recovery of funds.
Reading this garbage I’m ashamed to be British. Why don’t accept the fact that the ordinary people of Iceland and Britain have been rolled over by the fat cats of banking and government…………..Grow up!!
That’s why we are debating my friend Smo…
I couldn’t agree more Smo although I’m not ashamed to be British. The days when banking/government officals had some semblance of moral values are long gone. We seem to be putty in the hands of sociopaths who are untouchable and driven by an unquenchable greed for power/riches or both. Maybe we can demonstrate to try and change things , but I doubt it will have much impact. Even with the credit crunch , this ugly cabal will rise again like a ‘phoenix from the ashes’ to rob us or our future generations all over again. There must be a better way!!!!
>Even with the credit crunch , this ugly cabal will rise again like a ‘phoenix from the ashes’ to rob us or our future generations all over again. There must be a better way!!!!
Yeah, buy bank shares and partake in the looting of the masses.
Gray, Germany
But the Icelandic government as it has from the start agreed that it will pay its part of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) if things went bad.”
Things ARE bad. Where is the money? It’s not in the guarantee fund,
this would have bee alot easyer if the British had reacted differenly
you are like some idi*t running from door to door collecting subscription fee for the Sun in Dresden
the day after it was bombed
if you can not understand this i feel sorry for you
>this would have bee alot easyer if the British had reacted differenly
Yes,all it would have required is the British loan 10billion euro’s to prop up the Icelandic banking system and economy.
Nobody else is willing to do it, why should they?
Hi there
It´s really astonishing to read some of the unobjective and disturbing messages posted here as dirt is being flung both ways across the Atlantic.
I´m not generalising though since there is also a civilized debate going on here amongst most of the writers including William Watson, Mike and others.
Well here´s a link that I hope will help everyone to gain more perspective on this matter. It´s a letter sent from the Icelandic ministry of business affairs to the HM treasury on October the fith (when the situation concerning the banks was emerging in Iceland). This letter is the one that the Icelandic minister of finance was refferring to in his phone conversation with mr. Darling.
http://www.mbl.is/media/44/1044.pdf
I haven´t actually participated in any of the many British-Icelandic debates on this subject but I wanted to show you this letter since I haven´t seen it posted anywhere besides in Morgunbladid, the Icelandic news site.
With kind regards from Iceland and hope that this mess will be solved in the nearest future.
Grettir
“if you can not understand this i feel sorry for you”
Well, I really don’t understand your ridiculuous sentence about subscription selling in Dresden, but don’t feel sorry – I don’t care.
Grettir, could you pls elaborate a bit why yo think the letter is of any importance? Imho it only makes the your government look bad. I mean, really, a SINGLE sentence to explain the strategy of the Icleandic government for coping with the nak crisis and the paybaqck of oreign sentences? And nothing of any real substance in it, only the intention to “support” “raising the necessary funds”? That’s no guarantee. There’s no explanation of the kind of support, no timeline, no mention of the total obligations, no nothing. As an official letter from the treasury of a government, this is a joke. Ok, Mathiesen is only a veterinary, but doesn’t he have anybody who is qualified in finances in his ministry? Chancellor Darling must have thought the Icelanders want to play him for a sucker.
the letter is fictious, ive checked the postcode and its not real!!
It is James. Substitute 1 for I, so SW1A 2HQ (I wonder if that HQ is coincidental :) ).
On Oct 29, 2008, james said:
>the letter is fictious, ive checked the postcode
>and its not real!!
The address in the letter is:
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ
You’re right james! It’s on this fake site too:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/contact_us.htm
P.S: Someone will authenticate the letter soon enough. And the other ones too.
James, the postcode IS real. But will be easy to find out what really has happened in the relationship between Iceland and Britain. After all, there is a Freedom of Information Act which gives you access to what has happened inside the grey large buildings of Whitehall.
Actually, I do believe the letter is for real. Yet, I also believe that given the set of circumstances and given the imminent danger to British assets the British government did at least a case. Certainly, there should have been more communication, clearer statements and less panic in the talks between Iceland and Britain.
W Wallace:
>>Someone will authenticate the letter soon enough.
Really???
By denying that they have any intention abiding by it.
Read the PM’s statement *today* that paying the Icesavers back will be impossible and it will not happen, that it would cripple the economy?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5042460.ece
The amount they are required to pay is clear, yet now Haarde is saying its ‘negotiable’.
“Mr Haarde said that there were practical limits to what his Government could pay.”
Is that a “promise to pay Guarantee” ??
Its not, not even in the language of Scottish economics.
“I don’t want to make comparisons with Versailles”
:D. Really, Geir? Then why say it.
Assuming that the Times journo isn’t making it up, that article confirms that the Icelandic government is trying to wriggle out of the 20k euro guarantee.
QUOTES:
Gordon Brown has promised that Britain will guarantee the first £50,000 of each account, but the argument is over whether Iceland is bound by European rules to pay the first £16,500 of that amount.
AND:
Mr Haarde said that there were practical limits to what his Government could pay.
FWIW many Dutch people received their lost IceSave money from the Dutch government. I received my payment today. The Dutch governments pays up to EUR 100.000 per individual. Have the British people received their money already?