In a press conference this afternoon in Reykjavik, Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde and Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir said that the issue of compensation for Icesave customers in the Netherlands and the UK is still on course to be resolved soon, with final documents already being prepared.
Meanwhile, former Landsbanki chief Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson said that even at 50 percent of their original value, Landsbanki’s assets alone will be more than enough to fund the refund of the first EUR 20,000 of each account, in his opinion.
PM Haarde said that in light of recent developments, he believes the IMF will be able to vote on its decision to extend a USD 2.1 billion loan to Iceland early next week.
On the home front, the government sought to win public support and protect vulnerable taxpayers by introducing measures aimed at lightening the load on mortgages and ensuring that people will not be evicted from their homes. Child benefits will be changed to monthly payments instead of quarterly. Further details are expected in tomorrow’s newspapers.
The British RAF will not take control of the protection of Icelandic airspace in December, as was originally planned. The Prime Minister said that it was a NATO decision not specifically sought by Iceland or Britain; but that both nations agree with it. He said Iceland’s long term defence strategy has not changed.
Earlier in the day, the traditionally Euro sceptic Independence Party announced it will begin investigating whether the party can support EU membership in January. The other government coalition party, the Social Democrats, is pro-EU membership, as is around three quarters of the Icelandic population.
The international credit ratings agency Fitch this evening welcomed the news, but declined to state when or if it will increase Iceland’s sovereign credit rating.
EU membership comes only after a country has 3% inflation. Plus, a country has to have a ‘moral’ government, so I guess Iceland will soon have elections.
After all that, the funds were available all along to honour the guarantee.
If they hadn’t been paid to the depositors the other creditors would have claimed them.
If the Icelandic government had honoured their obligations in the first place there would not have been this issue. Britain was prepared to loan Iceland the money over many years. It turns out that Landsbanki assets cover the 20,000 Euros compensation anyway.
The British have no issues with the Icelandic people; the only dispute was with your prime Minster and bankers who should be held to account.
It’s the Icelandic people and British savers who are the innocent victims of just a few peoples greed. We had the same problems with our UK banks. With our banking system collapsing and people panicking our government had to protect our savers.
The UK savers trusted the Icelandic banks, that’s how highly we regarded Iceland as a country. The banking websites boasted many facts as to how rock solid they were, and we believed them.
Who would of thought what was about to beset us a year ago? Lets hope for a better 2009 for us all.
LOL probably for the best not to be landing anything worth €80 million on an Icelandic (Russian?) airfield right now.
Icelanders will now become aware that there is more to life than partying all day long. It’s called work and it’s something that apparently they haven’t been doing for almost a decade now.
*** GOOD NEWS ****
As your pound is falling FAST 20,000 Euro is going to
be worth much more to you the longer you have to wait for it
@Pablo
According to official numbers Icelander work most hours per person than any in the world. Instead of insulting people and talk about things that you have obviously very little knowledge about try spending your time doing something constructive and pls. keep the Icelandic nation out of this.
@Russell
We, and in this case you keep on missing the main point in all of this, that there is a banking crisis and Icelandic banks where some of the first to get hit by it.
@PABLO, do u know icelandic people? have u been in iceland and live whith this people? get a grip and open our eyes.
Pablo, you are either uninformed, or just a plain ignorant. Icelanders are extremely hard workers. Two things that struck me when I moved from Canada to Iceland…
a) Icelanders work much longer hours than those in Canada (yes probably to pay higher than average household debt, but nonetheless, very hard workers)
b) The party starts very late… a night of partying usually begins at midnight!
Theres no such thing as a ‘moral’ government. All governments look after themselves first and foremost.
As an icelandic Person I have to put my word in..
The Icelandic people work very hard.. most of them.
90% of the people in Iceland had no Idea about the Bankacounts in the UK and other countries.
We work hard and will fight this be best we know how.
“Icelanders will now become aware that there is more to life than partying all day long. It’s called work and it’s something that apparently they haven’t been doing for almost a decade now.”
That’s a little unfair, Pablo. For most of the last 37 years that I’ve been visiting Iceland, an ordinary Icelanders either worked all the hours available at their proper jobs, or normal hours at the proper job and lots of hours at the second job. Everything is so expensive it was the only way people could have what they regard as a decent standard of living.
Now they will have to go back to that, if indeed it ever went away for some people.
I’ve only ever come across one idle lazy Icelander, though I expect there are others. But not very many.
Icelanders have longer working weeks than the average west European country’s. They are very responsable persons and are as much victim as the rest of us.
I have no expertise in anything financial or banking and therefore will not make a comment regarding the situation in Iceland. I,m not qualified to and from what i have read here some others should not either.
However, I will say how unhelpful it is to read comments negitive to the Icelandic people. They are a proud people and ,most, extreamly hard working. They, like the rest of the world are dependant upon Government and, in this case, Banking instituions. A number of individuals have messed up big time and it is they that have to be bought to count.
I,m a Brit living in Iceland and would hope that all those effected by this situation direct their comments to those responcible. My brother and his wife invested heavily here and are in the same situation as many others, but i have never heard an angry comment from either directed towards Iceland or it,s citizens.
“there is a banking crisis and Icelandic banks where some of the first to get hit by it.”
PBM, Icelandic banks were so ridiculously overleveraged that every crisis would had brought them down. The banking sector’s balance sheet was at 900% of the GDP, while even in bank heavy Swiss it’s only 650%. At the same time, Iceland is much smaller, so it is much more vulnerable to market pressure by big hedge funds (which bet on an Icelandic bankruptcy since a long time). The inefficient central bank and the incompetent government assured that no serious crisis management was possible.
Sry, but if you look at studies of the Icelandic crisis by economic experts who looked into the details, you’ll find that the unanimous verdict is that this was an anccident waiting to happen. If it wouldn’t have been the credit crisis playing part in their fall, every other crisis would have done so, too. Remember, it just took the news about Glitnir being unable to secure new credits to push Landsbanki and Kaupthing into the maelstron, too.
It’s funny to read foreigners talking about what they saw and felt passing by Iceland.
I will think you need some minimum life experience in any cultural critics.
There is work and works,
There is going and coming back…
“The Icelandic people work very hard.. most of them.”
Most of them, except those teenagers “working” in service jobs, of course:
“Customer Disservice”
http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=16571&ew_0_a_id=315026
…dependant upon Government.’ The word Government means ‘the people’, not an imaginary group of fat white men, all together in a big room, wearing sun glasses and controlling the world in a sinister way. ‘The people-citizens that vote’, have the responsibility, in any free society, to elect people that will be fair and honest, and also to have regulators/agencies to monitor those same people in charge.The Icelandic people apparently are naive and had NO regulations that were enforced to protect themselves and the outside investors against the thieves in control of your country.
So, the entire voting population of Iceland is responcible for this mess?
My word I have a lot to answer for for electing the present UK government!
Sorry chaps!!
pablo!!!!!!What you said is a thing without any RESPECT(!!!!!) and KNOWLEDGE(!!!!)of Icelandic people!!!!!They are very hard workers AND every time when they come in a crisis they know by working hard!!!!!coming out of this!!!!PLs.SAY NOT THAT STUPID THINGS ANYMORE!!!!
On Nov 16, 2008, STAN said:
“The Icelandic people apparently are naive and had NO regulations that were enforced to protect themselves and the outside investors against the thieves in control of your country.”
Strange you should say that Stan because
this current economic crisis in Iceland has it’s origins in Iceland adopting EU Banking regulations in the 1990’s and Iceland have adopted all the EU changes made to effect a Laissez Faire attitude by Government to Banking.
Certainly the Government of Iceland should have ignored the EU banking directives and instructed the Central Bank to steadily build up its Gold Reserves every year to support the currency, with the aim of 100% gold bullion foundation.
What a Drama queen this Hans… Probably Pablo knows what is talking about.
Just go to work more, because the government needs more than ever from our 40% taxes.
ICESAVE CUSTOMER TO ICELAND WHAT GOS AROUND COMES AROUND YOUR PAY IN THE END NO SETTING UP BANKS IN ENGLAND NO UK GOING FOR HOLIDAYS TO ICELAND STOP BUY YOUR FISH THIS WILL HURT YOU.