With a 60/40 vote against the Icesave repayment deal, Iceland’s Minister of Finance Steingrimur J. Sigfusson says the case will now go to court, but that there are no hard feelings in the Netherlands and the UK.
Initial responses from London and The Hague are disappointment tempered with understanding that Iceland’s direct democracy needs to be respected and not blamed on the government, Sigfusson said.
He added that Iceland will push for the case to go to the ESA court as soon as possible and with no delay. It will still take a year to a year-and-a-half, however.
Sigfusson said that the public ‘no’ vote is not a slap in the face for the government and parliament, because the government always acknowledged that there were outstanding legal questions over Icesave that should be answered in court. The government, however, chose the path of negotiation, believing a negotiated settlement would be best for all involved. Now those legal questions will certainly be answered, he said.
The actual effect of the vote is that the British and Dutch governments remain the biggest claimants on the estate of Landsbanki. A yes vote would have transferred their claims over to the Icelandic depositors’ guarantee fund. Sigfusson told reporters that positive developments in the Landsbanki winding up process mean that priority claimants will receive a significant payout this year and further payments shortly afterwards.
The ongoing political dispute between the three countries will have no effect on the winding up of Landsbanki and the British and Dutch governments can, as things stand today, expect to recoup 90 to 100 percent of their claims. The higher their recovery direct from Landsbanki, the less there will be left over for the governments to argue about, the minister said.
Just wanted to reply to the people saying “when the banks were profiting, did they share it with the public?”
YES, they did. Banks pay the biggest part of the tax collected in Iceland and hence public services and even wages were paid using them. So, public is responsible for the payment of debts of banks, which is guaranteed by the govn’t. Why did not the Iceland public resist to the govn’t when govn’t guaranteed the banking system?
No hard feelings, we stole your money, just accept it.
Is this what the Finance minister is asking from us?
NOT a chance Mr. Finance minister.
The emergency law introduced by the Iceland government is what made everything unfair and created this whole mess.
These banks clearly commited big fraud and lied to the investors.
The Icelandic government should never have meddled in these Bank’s affairs and a fair process should have been followed to dissolve these banks and pay the creditors equally, albeit 10-20 returns%
But Iceland wanted everything, not to pay the ivestors and still pay the Icelandic depositors from the the proceeds fo these Banks.
You cannot have both. Something is very wrong with the process.
The British and Dutch will deal with the matter.
These are very influencial and very powerful nations that determine the direction of history. Glad these two nations are taking things seriously. Wonder when the Germans will act, because they lost big money in Iceland.
Watch this space in the next few months.
Does this mean that the UK and Dutch will go to the court to get what is legally owed to them?
If Iceland cannot pay, that means that they will be bankrupt and have no financial support from the EU.
My word – seems like Iceland may have made a bad decision not to repay.
To Mazarin/.se
Totally agree.
Fortunately, Grimsson’s intervention has facilitated collective responsibility for Icelanders.
Should UK/NL fail to make their case in court – I would sooner that consequence, as opposed to having received recompense, on the basis of it being an act of charitable moral obligation on the part of Icelanders.
To Court!
Hmm, lets have a look at status in the E.U, Greece and Portugal bailed, after profligate and unsustainable spending what they cannot pay back, Irelands’ bank value reduced to junk bond status and bailed out by Britain. All to the tune of billions of Euros. The E.U holding talks to set fish quotas without the courtesy of inviting their neighbour when asked politely and then, primarily at the behest of Britain, screaming and posturing politically when Iceland sets its’ own quota. When Icelanders learned of people in need during a particularly cold winter at fishing ports they have traded with for years, donated a container load of those fine Iceland sweaters the return was to have them banned from offloading fish at those places.
Governments bailing out investors is a wrong thing to do, and good on the people of Iceland for denying such. I expect that they will consider the benefits E.U. membership in perspective.
Canada and the U.S. is not that much further to deal with and we do like fish. Come on over.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/04/10/iceland-referendum-debt.html
We applaud Iceland citizens referendum NO vote to the UK & Netherland banks compensation scheme.
Why should they have to pay up for the misdeeds of the Icelandic corrupted politicians and fraudulent bankers ?
Did they were participating to their previous profits ?
Banks, Funds & Private Investors who put their cash into EU bankrupt banks & junk Government Bonds, knew they were taking a high risk, as they were receiving interest rates well above the average market rate.
Why should the general public of EU, entirely unconnected to the banking & financial sectors, be expected to compensate Investment Banks, Funds & Private Investors losses or stump up the money that EU politicians spent trying to buy votes?
This is the reason we suggest to all Greek Citizens to follow Iceland’s example, asking for a similar referendum in Greece.
We’re sure that Greek NO vote should be higher than 90%.
Follow us at http://www.stopspeculators.gr.
Dr. Kiriakos Tobras
It’s amazing how well iceland has managed to fool the world opinion that their fight against the icesave deal has anything to do with the innocent people having to pay the debts of a few irresponsible bankers.
Iceland has simply lived WAY above their means for a decade, ignored every warning from worried neighbours and threatened legal action against anyone implying that the icelandic banks were about as stabile as a house of cards. Anyone who has ever been to Iceland before the crash knows that the people have afforded themselves luxuries to a degree unheard of anywhere else in the west. Even those who didn’t take enormous direct loans from the bank (probably around 5 people in the entire country) to finance their expensive spending habits have benefitted hugely from all the borrowed money overflowing the country with fancy new infrastructure everywhere and hilariously high salaries for unskilled jobs. Not to mention that the government responsible for all of this was re-elected despite warnings that iceland was on the verge of bankrupcy. Just like the greeks, irish, estonian and portuguese people, the icelandic PEOPLE are very much responsible for the current situation. Referendums are always good though so i’m delighted the people were allowed decide. Just don’t whine that you’re being bullied, you brought this on youselves. Don’t kid yourselves that you have even the slightest chance of winning when this goes to court, it’ll only end up being more expensive for you.
Yeah, right – say NO to the thousands of people in UK and Norway who investing funds in Icesave in good faith and are now experienceing hardship…great idea
The reason a negotiated settlement was so sought after was to avoid the evidence that may, or may not, see the light of day through the courts.
Bravo from the USA to you 60 percent that are not going to shoulder the blame or debt of private bankers. Even AFTER the government wants to take that private debt and make it public.
Bravo!
Iceland ruulz! well done. Estonian people supporting you as you supported us!
keep youre head up! say NO!