info.LandsbankiAction.org.gg 17-Dec: Part-payment of 11-12.5p in the £1 in January 2010 announced. Deloitte Press Release
Media Reports
This page contains brief summaries of and links to media reports of relevance. Click on one of the topics or the source below each entry to see only reports on that topic or from that source. See Selected for the media reports that the site editors have selected as the most important or relevant.
As Iceland resists paying our billions, let’s not forget just who is to blame
Icelandic bankers and British ‘rate tarts’ caused the Icesave folly, yet the two nations’ taxpayers will be footing the bill.
Iceland was a nation that took huge pride in the fact its government used to owe nothing. The phrases “net debt-free” and “debtless” would pepper the briefings of its senior financial officials before the crisis. But then came the crazed ingenuity of Iceland’s bankers in funding themselves through thrifty British and Dutch internet savers, rather than sophisticated international financiers. And so from the likes of Icesave arose a giant Icedebt. . .
The path to this point was novel but predictable. The causes of the crisis have lessons that should be heeded well beyond this northern Atlantic rock. Business and Marketing News, Funds, Finance and Stock Market website - 18-Feb-10.
Icesave talks to start in London on Monday -sources
Iceland will meet Britain and the Netherlands in London on Monday to present a new proposal for repaying more than $5 billion (3.2 billion pounds) lost in Icelandic bank accounts, sources familiar with the plans said. . .
A Icelandic government source has said the new proposal involves quicker repayment of the country's debt from a sale of the assets of failed bank Landsbanki.
A spokesman at Iceland's finance ministry said the government hoped to present the new proposal "very soon."
One creditor nation source said he "could not rule out" that the talks would stretch more than one day.
The source also said the talks were not likely to be at the highest levels, particularly as European Union finance ministers are meeting early this week to focus on the public debt crisis in Greece. IBTimes website - 15-Feb-10.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20100215/icesave-talks-start-london-monday-sources.htm
Landsbanki: Local depositors a "low priority" [sic *]
Depositors with the failed Guernsey bank Landsbanki have suffered a setback to their campaign to get their money back.
The bank went into administration in 2008 following the collapse of its parent in Iceland.
Some of the Guernsey depositors' cash had been sent to the parent bank and efforts are underway to recover it. But the depositors have now been told they're among creditors classed as a "low priority" by the parent bank.
Landsbanki Iceland is also refusing to recognise the guarantee it offered for savings with Landsbanki Guernsey. 15-Feb-10.
http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_guernseynews/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=483863
* [For the avoidance of doubt LG depositors' claims were arbitrarily rejected 'in every respect' and given no 'priority' at all.]
Icesave talks to resume on Monday: Iceland minister
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland is set to resume talks Monday with Britain and the Netherlands on repaying more than $5 billion lost when Icelandic banks collapsed in 2008, Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson said Sunday. . .
A new negotiating team would leave Reykjavik to attend exploratory meetings Monday, Sigfusson told state radio, without saying whether the talks would take place in Britain or the Netherlands. . .
Reykjavik plans to make a new proposal which a government source said involves quicker repayment of the debt with a sale of the assets of failed bank Landsbanki. 14-Feb-10.
Landsbanki Guernsey depositors told their claims 'rejected'
Landsbanki Guernsey depositors around the world have begun to receive a message from the Winding-Up Board of the bank’s Icelandic parent saying that it has “decided to reject” their claims for compensation on the grounds that “it has not been sufficiently shown” that the parent entity had ever agreed to guarantee its Guernsey arm's liabilities.
News of the rejection of the depositors’ claims for compensation was disclosed to International Adviser today in an email from Landsbanki Guernsey depositor Mark Ashbey, a member of the Landsbanki Guernsey Depositors’ Action Group (LGDAG).
Another member of the group, Matthew Dorman, said both his organisation and the joint administrators, Deloitte, “had been expecting this” and would be submitting objections to the decision to the Winding-Up Board. They will also continue to pursue their legal actions against Landsbanki Iceland and the Icelandic government, he added.
Spokespersons for Deloitte could not immediately be reached.
Around 1,600 depositors, more than 90% of them British, had some £120m on deposit in the Guernsey branch of Landsbanki when it collapsed in October 2008. At the time, Guernsey did not have a depositors’ compensation scheme in force. So far the Guernsey depositors have received about 67.5p in the pound, unlike Landsbanki depositors in the UK and Netherlands, who received 100% of their money months ago. International Adviser website - 14-Feb-10.
Treasury awaits results of probe into Icesave's past
The UK Treasury has stood by its position on the collapse of Icesave, as the head of the Dutch central bank accused the Icelandic government of misleading it about its financial system. . .
Mr Wellink told a parliamentary committee in the Netherlands that he had been given false assurances by Icelandic government officials and regulators about the safety of the banks.
Matt Patterson, spokesman for the UK Treasury, declined to comment on Mr Wellink's remarks but said all three parties were trying to reach an agreement on the issue. . .
Gylfi Magnusson, minister of economic affairs for Iceland, said in a statement: "We take such allegations very seriously.
"One of the tasks before us is to understand whether false or misleading information was presented by the Icelandic banks, regulators and government officials to foreign regulatory agencies in the months leading up to the collapse of the banking system in October 2008." FT Adviser website 11-Feb-10.
Icesave talks to reopen next week
The Icelandic government intends to propose paying no interest on its Icesave debt.
According to RUV, the Icelandic government could save around ISK 130 billion if interest on the Icesave debt is removed from the total bill at negotiations with the Dutch and British authorities, which start next week. 12-Feb-10.
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/02/12/icesave-talks-to-reopen-next-week/
Who lied?
There is much talk in the Icelandic media these days over remarks made last week by two high ranking Dutch officials during a hearing by an investigative committee. One is the head of the Dutch National Bank [their central bank], and the other an official with the Dutch Financial Supervisory Authority. . . .
Evidently few people in Iceland seem to doubt that their claims are true. However, there has been much speculation over just who lied. Initially, it was to have been the head of the Central Bank here in Iceland [presumably Davíð Oddsson], then there were reports that it had been the heads of the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority. No one seems to know exactly who was responsible for conveying the misleading information.
Predictably, Oddsson went on the offensive trying to convince everyone that it wasn’t him – hauling out the old chestnut about how he tried to warn everyone in government about what was imminent months before the collapse but nobody listened. Unfortunately, as pointed out in a Fréttablaðið editorial a couple of days ago, there is no documented evidence that Oddsson’s claims are true. Iceland Weather Report website - 08-Feb-10.
Icesave marketing mastermind takes place in parliament
Teitur Atlason, hands down one of Iceland’s best bloggers [who actually writes from Sweden] calls attention to an interesting development on his blog: a young, up-and-coming politician named Erla Ósk Ásgeirsdóttir is taking a seat in parliament today on behalf of the Independence Party.
One of Erla Ósk’s greatest career accomplishments is to have planned the wildly successful marketing campaign behind the Icesave accounts when she was employed by Landsbanki.
Teitur writes:
In other words, holding a seat in parliament is a woman with first-hand knowledge of how those criminal bank accounts were marketed. A woman who is, in part, responsible for the greatest disgrace that Icelanders have seen and experienced on their own skins. Iceland Weather Report website - 02-Feb-10.
Dutch Central Banker: Icelanders Lied about Icesave
Arnold Schilder, former head of the inner supervision of the Dutch Central Bank said the Icelandic Central Bank had lied about the situation of Landsbanki’s Icesave savings scheme up until the banking collapse of October 2008 during a parliamentary inquest into the global credit crisis in the Netherlands yesterday.
“I have to say that our Icelandic colleagues were not telling us the truth. We often asked them straight out how it was going and they always answered with Hallelujah stories, that nothing was wrong. Not even in August and September 2008,” Schilder told the parliamentary committee, RÚV reports.
Schilder said Nout Wellink, the president of the Central Bank of the Netherlands, had also received similar answers.
Wellink was also called before the parliamentary committee yesterday to discuss other aspects of the crisis. On Thursday he will answer the committee’s questions about Icesave. That day, Dutch Minister of Finance Wouter Bos will also be called before the committee. 02-Feb-10.
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=29314&ew_0_a_id=357279
