A group of key owners in Icelandic retail giant Hagar have made a deal with Arion Banki to keep a share of the business, despite its having been insolvent and taken over by the bank. Read the full story

A new environmental loan programme totalling EUR 30 million has been signed by the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and Poland’s Bank Ochrony Srodowiska (BOS). Read the full story

A Swedish bank robber, who locked himself in a Danish safety deposit vault over a weekend, was caught after police extracted his DNA from a bag of urine that he threw at a security guard. Read the full story

A teenager, suspected of robbing a bank and taking a woman hostage in southern Stockholm, was shot and wounded by police who thought he was carrying explosives. Officers confirmed that they fired at the 19-year-old man in the Huddinge branch of Swedbank this week after he threatened staff with a replica pistol. Read the full story

The Icelandic savings bank SPRON, which closed its doors last year, held an assets sale yesterday where the bank’s administrators sold off some of the firm’s physical assets to the public. Read the full story

The Post and Telecom Agency of Sweden (PTS), which monitors postal and communication sectors in the country, has taken a surprising and unusual step in regards to registering domain names which end in .se. Read the full story

Around 16,000 Belgians that had deposits and balances in Luxembourg’s Kaupthing branch will be expected to receive reimbursements later this week. Their accounts and balances were frozen in November last year shortly after the collapse of the Icelandic banks. Read the full story

A 21-year old crewmember of the Danish Navy patrol ship, Hvidbjornen broke into a bank in central Reykjavik earlier this week. His ship was in port on a visit to the Icelandic capital.

The man was arrested in an agitated state after breaking into a closed branch of Kaupthing and stealing a small amount of Icelandic money, only in 100 and 10 kronur coins. Read the full story

The Government of Iceland has appointed Norwegian-French Magistrate Eva Joly as a special adviser on the investigation of cases linked to the country’s economic collapse. Read the full story

PRESS RELEASE FROM KAUPTHING BANK:

On 24 November 2008 the District Court of Reykjavik granted Kaupthing Bank hf. (“Kaupthing”) a moratorium on payments to creditors. In the opinion of the Resolution Committee, applying for the moratorium was a neccessary step in order to ensure that all creditors of Kaupthing are treated fairly and appropriately, in accordance with Icelandic law and EU directives. Read the full story