An agreement has been reached between the governments of Iceland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands on compensation for money held in Icesave accounts.
Icesave was the British and Dutch online savings bank of the now nationalised Landsbanki, based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The agreement was presented this afternoon at a historic government meeting house in Reykjavik, which once served as the official residence for Prime Ministers.
Under the agreement, the Icelandic government will pay out on approximately the first EUR 20,000 in each Icesave account. The Icelandic government will not be responsible for deposited savings over EUR 20,000.
The European Union will extend a loan to Iceland for the purpose of paying off the debt to savers. The UK and the Netherlands will be among the countries providing the loan, MBL.is reports.
Well, this was all what was wanted and needed in the first place. Shame that Haarde still can’t bring himself to being diplomatic and honourable, instead spouting comments such as: “We are isolated when all 27 EU member states agree that we have to reach an accord on Icesave”. So this comment also means that he never intended to ‘honour the guarantees’ in the first place.
He and the current Icelandic government are a liability and have made an extremely bad impression on countries outside of Iceland. I’ve never seen Europe and the IMF to withhold help for so long and this comes all down to distrust in Haarde and Co. As Haarde said, 27 EU member states agreeing..” – that’s quite a unanimous judgement of how he and his colleagues are perceived.
I wish the Icelandic people all the best with getting through this crisis.
It was really not at all up to the people that these catastrophes happened, it is very much up to them though whether the current government will remain and carry on messing things up.
Good points, Jim! Yes, Haarde has wasted all the trust that any European government may once have had in him and his administration. It will be to a future government to repair all this damage.
I couldn’t more agree with you Jim.
This Government has really to step down. All this Geysergate start to sound more and more to “the guns of mass destruction”. Mr. Haarde or whoever writes his speeches is bringing shame on the Icelandic people. Under such crisis and bad situation, there are a lot of things I wish he didn’t address to world politics like he did.
Again, what a shame…
IM pleased that the Long awaited action has taken place, however I think a new wave of Ridicule and Slander is headed to Iceland yet again, for those who feel the deal is not enough ?
Politically it has been approved, that in itself is the problem : (
Lets Remind ourselves of the new leader board of Problematic Idiots:
BUSH: 1st Place
BLAIR: 2nd Place
BROWN: 3rd Place
DAVID ODDSON: 4th Place
GEIR H HAARDE: 5th Place
Whats your leader board like ? We all know who they are for the financial turmoil that Politics create like you would’nt do business with them even on “E-BAY” !
Little Wonder really that the website “E-BAY” is so successful, with a bigger TURNOVER than some country’s ! PEOPLE POWER one to one, NO Political tax,
Check out these facts to Music : )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA5faeCGg-w
I wonder when the hapless Mr Haarde will stump up some cash for the forgotten Landsbanki Guernsey savers?
In a word LS, “no”.
Its taken them 5 weeks to honour the EEA guarantee, so there’s no way that they’ll honour a guarantee between two private companies. The only way it would be guaranteed would be if Landsbanki hf’s assets were more than what it owed its own depositors and external creditors.
IANAL though, so I’d be happy to be proved wrong.
Slippery terminology is being used by Icelandic government representatives. I would have hoped – given the intransigence of Haarde, that he would have been denied ‘wriggle room’
A most recent Associated Press report states- “It was made clear to us that the IMF package and the $3.9 billion of loans from other countries would not be forthcoming unless we cleared the Icesave dispute,” Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokeswoman for Iceland’s foreign ministry told the Associated Press on Monday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIxT0aBF3S3FsDhFV_537Ljj9fkQD94GPMT80
This would seems contradictory to a previous statement – “Iceland’s foreign minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir said the state has now accepted its minimum liability of €20,887 (£18,000) for each Icesave account, after the government originally said domestic customers would be given priority. “We are isolated when all 27 EU member states agree that we have to reach an accord on Icesave,” she said”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/iceland/3460807/Iceland-close-to-reaching-compensation-deal-for-UK-Icesave-customers.html
Subtle differences, but it would seem that there is some distancing from the original grudging acceptance of responsibility.
Perhaps the motive of Haarde, is an attempt to save his skin – alleging blackmail by a gang headed by the UK?
Could any of you actually tell my how much you lost personally.
To Landsbanki Saver:
Please remember that very little has actually changed with this agreement in real practical terms. The Icelandic government does not have any foreign currencies available to cover the depositors, so almost all of it will have to be loaned from European governments anyway, mainly UK and Netherlands. We will probably see the final agreements announced on these depositor loans within the next few days or weeks.
The only NEW THING with this agreement, is that if at the end of the liquidation of the old banks, which will probably take years, there is not enough money to cover the 20K Euros for the depositors, Iceland will be held responsible for the difference. If that disaster happens, Iceland will probably need to get further loans to cover this, which will then take it decades to pay.
Any hopes that the Icelandic population will be able to take on more responsibilities than what it has now been forced to do, has no connection to the harsh reality it faces (bankruptcies, loss of savings, unemployment, high debt, shrinking GDP, etc.).
So I am sorry, the chances that there will be some extra cash available in Iceland for helping out the Landsbanki Guernsey savers is unfortunately close to zero. The only possibility would be what Bromley86 mentioned, that the assets of Landsbanki would be able to cover it along with all the other depositors and creditors.
The Guernsey people’s losses are well documented on two websites.
Just click on Landsbanki Saver, his user name, and it will bring you there.
http://landsbankiguernseysavers.co.uk/
The story of Landsbanki Guernsey is documented there. The list of losses is on another site I think.
Guernsey is not part of the UK, the people have no Gov. insurance for their deposits.
Nor were they ever promised any, unlike savers in the EEA. The last I saw from the Guernsey receivers, depositors will get 30% back “fairly quickly” and maybe another 20% back “later”.
Bjarni – you mention the harsh reality it (Iceland) faces (bankruptcies, loss of savings, unemployment) – those are the exact ‘harsh realities’ that ordinary savers in Landsbanki Guernsey and Kaupthing Isle of Man are facing RIGHT NOW!
We’re British too, but our Government does not see fit to assist us in retrieving our hard earned money – on the interest from which we have paid tax to UK or other EU governments. Many of us are pensioners who have watched our savings, accumulated over a life-time of work, disappear overnight. We relied on the interest from our savings to supplement our meagre UK pensions and now its gone and we are unable to just go back to work to start again. Iceland too is apparently happy to renege on the Parental Guarantees issued to savers by both banks.
I am sorry that Iceland is facing a nightmare future, but we’re living ours right now and there’s no sign of help from anywhere.
To Emma Broad:
What I was trying to say, was that it does not make whole lot of sense to ask one set of bankrupt people (Icelandic) to pay the deposits for another set of bankrupt people (depositors in Guernsey and Isle of Man). Both are facing RIGHT NOW exactly the same harch realities.
The original problem was caused by gross incompetence of the bankers, financial authorities, and governments, both in Iceland, UK, and elsewhere. There is no one without blame here. Unfortunately, all of them will not stick around to actually pay for the damage, so it will instead land on the general public in each country.
The Parental Guarantee, from what I understood, extended from the LG and KIoM, to their respective parent banks in Iceland. Now the situation is, that those parent banks (Landsbanki hf. and Kaupthing hf.) have both been placed in administration, and they will almost certainly be declared bankrupt and put into liquidation. Which means the parental guarantees will be handled equally along with any other claims to the bankruptcy estates.
If the Icelandic government were to take over the parental guarantees of the banks, it would simply mean in reality that the population of Iceland (the tax-payers), would have to pay for it.
You may want to read the blog thread on the “IceSave deal expected quickly” at:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/11/13/icesave-deal-expected-quickly-iceland-foreign-minister/
There are some posts there discussing one possible solution, that is letting the foreign creditors simply take over the operations of the old Icelandic banks. This would potentially increase the chance of all the creditors getting paid the maximum amount possible.
Emma Broad, I’m sorry for your loss. I truly am, I wish life would be as simple as blaming me, but it isn’t as you probably know.
Globalism and different treaties has made this cenario possible, it is utterly unfair that this happened.
You were robbed, I was robbed, and it won’t probably ever change.
Read the treateas, and you’ll see the guaranties the small countries were given are nothing but false.
There were never any doubt that they were liable for them, but to be able to pay as they could up to certain amount is another matter,if you think about it, it could get utterly stupit, as it has, therefore, they put a small clause: “in case of emergency”, this has not been followed, instead, we have been subjected to International blackmail even though treaties say differently. Iv’e been fooled, I’ve been blamed.
Why?, because they think this might set a dangerous precidence.
Right.
Pitty they didn’t live up to it AND GOT BULLIED to follow something they can’t ever do, just to preserve a market that can’t be sustained.
I ask, to where did you pay taxes of those money?, in UK? or Iceland?
Do you think you have bought an insurance by paying taxes?
Did your local branch and people working in it pay taxes to Iceland or the UK?
Does the company operating in your area pay taxes to UK or Iceland?
Did they follow the EFTA treaty?, if not sue them, please.