“I believe that before too long, new information will come to light which shows just how difficult a position the Icelandic government has been in over this issue,” said Icelandic Finance Minister Steingrimur J. Sigfusson. Read the full story

Global Finance, the international financial news magazine, has named Glitnir the ‘Best Bank’ in Iceland in its 2007 ‘World’s Best Developed Market Banks’ awards.

The awards were made to ‘banks that attended carefully to their customers’ needs and accomplished enviable results while laying the foundations for future success’.

“We recognise Glitnir for their outstanding accomplishments,” said Joseph D. Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance. “Conditions in each market may have differed, but the winning banks were all noteworthy in their dedication to satisfying their customer’s needs”.

Read the full story

Whilst many financial spectators have been advising Icelandic banks to proceed more cautiously this year, the main Icelandic banks have not stopped in their acquisitions on the global market.

Icelandic banks were in financial turmoil in early 2006 but that hasn’t stopped Iceland’s biggest bank, Kaupthing, from buying up Dutch merchant bank NIBC, this summer. The deal cost Kaupthing $4.2 billion dollars but neither that, nor the current credit crisis seems to have slowed the bank down. Kaupthing currently has its eyes on Norwegian insurance company, Storebrand.

Read the full story