The Board of Directors at Landsbanki has decided to hire Steinthor Palsson as the new Bank President. He will take over from Asmundur Stefansson at the beginning of June. Palsson says his background at Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson’s Actavis drugs company will not interfere with his new job in any way.
Palsson’s appointment was announced at a board meeting yesterday afternoon. He is the third President of Landsbanki since the banking collapse in autumn 2008 when the bank came into public ownership. He says his job is to wake the bank up because it is in a tangle, much like the Icelandic economy in general. The bank needs to rouse its energy and go on the offensive, he says.
Palsson was once the CEO of Actavis in Malta and then headed up the production department of Actavis USA and had a position on the company’s executive board.
Actavis is owned by Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson who was one of the main owners of Landsbanki before the crash, RUV reports. Palsson stresses that his history will not affect the way he conducts himself at Landsbanki, adding that in a small society it is always possible to link two people together. His appointment was entirely professional and above board.
How can this bank be operating when many thousands of needy creditors are waiting for their money? Sell all the assets, send everyone home and pay the creditors as soon as possible. Or give the creditors houses and land in Iceland in excahnge for the money which was used to uplift the standard of living in Iceland for the last 5 years. I would accept land in Iceland or a house in exchange for the money owed to me. Crditors do not live forever, we have daily expenses and we want to forget this very uggly chapter.