Angry Icelanders are petitioning their president, putting pressure on him not to sign a controversial bill that has divided the North Atlantic island.

Tens of thousands of signatures opposing the so-called Icesave legislation were delivered to his official residence.  Euronews website - 02-Jan-10.

http://www.euronews.net/2010/01/02/iceland-s-president-urged-to-reject-icesave-bill/

President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson did not sign the Icesave-bill into law at a meeting with the cabinet yesterday. This was highly unusual, since usually the President would use the occasion to sign all laws ratified by Althingi, Iceland’s Parliament. . .

Many take this as an indication that the President will refuse to sign. He is in a very difficult spot. When he signed a previous bill on Icesave, passed by Althingi in late August 2009 he indicated that the reason was that many preconditions had been set in that bill. Those conditions have been watered out on the insistence of the British and Dutch governments. . .

Two days ago about 35 thousand people have signed a petition urging the President not to sign the bill. At the time of writing in the afternoon of January 1 the number has gone up to almost 55 thousand. 01-Jan-10.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=21123&ew_0_a_id=355959

The president of Iceland said Thursday he would delay a decision on a deal approved by parliament to pay Britain and the Netherlands for having compensated savers in a failed Icelandic bank.

On Saturday he is to receive a petition signed by nearly 40,000 of the island's 320,000 inhabitants opposing the arrangement.

If the president refuses to endorse the legislation, the issue would be put to a referendum.  31-Dec-09.  AFP via Google

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5il46NnjxgdliEWEIgJf5_8zJhazg

The Icelandic parliament is in turmoil in the third and final debate over Icesave. The parliament’s Budget Committee received last minute communications from British solicitors Mishcon de Reya indicating that they are in possession of important documents that the parliament should familiarise themselves with before making the final decision on the Icesave-bill. . .

The information allegedly suppressed was Mischon de Reya’s evaluation of proceedings against the British Financial Supervisory Authority that may strengthen the position of Iceland in talks about the Icesave-issue.

“I think it is safe to say that any European government, proven guilty of hiding such information, after having been repeatedly asked if all available and relevant information was on the table would not be allowed to remain in control of parliament” said Sigmundur David.  30-Dec-09.

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/12/30/uproar-in-icelands-parliament-over-allegedly-suppressed-icesave-documents/

Iceland's parliament approved an amended bill to repay more than $5 billion lost by savers in Britain and the Netherlands when the island's banks collapsed during the financial crisis.

Here is a timeline of events since Iceland's financial meltdown.  31-Dec-09

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLDE5BT0OC

Iceland parliament's approved paying nearly four billion euros to Britain and the Netherlands, which had compensated more than 320,000 of their savers in a failed Icelandic bank.

Although the measure has stirred up resentment among many ordinary Icelanders hard hit by their country's financial meltdown in 2008, lawmakers approved the measure by a vote of 33 to 30 as the issue had become a major obstacle in the small Atlantic island nation's bid to join the European Union.  31-Dec-09.  AFP via Yahoo! News

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091231/tpl-iceland-approves-icesave-compensatio-5b839a9.html

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http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=uk&ncl=dZMidRuzAX_ZKOMsvIej6m8fa147M

When you look back on 2009, what will you remember? Barack Obama’s inauguration, the panic over swine flu, the worst global recession for decades, the death of Michael Jackson?

Since January we have highlighted the cases of hundreds of readers who have faced financial crises. As the year draws to a close, we revisit a selection to find out how they have coped.

We also highlighted the plight of 1,600 savers who had about £120 million invested in Landsbanki Guernsey when the Channel Islands bank was placed into administration. They are a step closer to getting their money.  26-Dec-09

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article6966457.ece

Iceland’s parliament may reject a foreign depositor bill for a second time in a move that would sour relations with the U.K. and Netherlands and that Fitch Ratings has signaled will weaken the sovereign’s credit grade.

All 28 opposition lawmakers in the 63-seat parliament will try to block a bill that obliges Iceland to cover the depositor claims using borrowed funds from the U.K. and Netherlands, party leaders told Bloomberg.

Even if the depositor bill does pass through parliament, it must still be ratified by President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. More than 34,000 people have signed a petition calling on him not to sign the law. If he bows to public pressure, as he did in 2004 on a media ownership bill in response to a petition carrying 32,000 signatures, the bill will be put to a referendum.  20-Dec-09

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a685sXUNswAw

LANDSBANKI Guernsey depositors will get more of their savings back in the new year, the bank's administrators have confirmed.

The administrators now also believe that savers might get more than 90% of their money back – after having previously said it would require 'external intervention' to recover that much.  18-Dec-09

http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/12/18/landsbanki-savers-could-get-more-than-90-back/

The joint administrators of the Guernsey branch of the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki said a third distribution to creditors of between 11 and 12.5p in the pound will take place in January.

They also updated their estimate for the ultimate recovery for creditors to be between 85 and 91p.

Deloitte said the increase reflected "the largely successful realisation of assets in 2009 driven, in part, by better-than-feared market conditions, and the intense efforts of the administration team".

It added that these estimated returns were still subject to "a wide range of factors primarily connected to the UK residential property market, many of which are outside of the joint administrators control, which may result in the actual return being lower or higher than this range".   International Adviser, 17-Dec-09

http://www.international-adviser.com/lwm/article/1019

Also: Deloitte to recover 90% for Landsbanki creditors, Accountancy Age, 18-Dec-09

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2255271/deloitte-administrators-set