info.LandsbankiAction.org.gg 17-Dec: Part-payment of 11-12.5p in the £1 in January 2010 announced. Deloitte Press Release
Telegraph
This page contains brief summaries of and links to media reports from the source Telegraph.
Another setback for Landsbanki Guernsey savers
Expat depositors battling for the return of their entire savings from Landsbanki Guernsey have learned they face hefty legal costs if they wish to continue the fight.
At a settlement meeting with the Icelandic Winding Up Board (WUB) on August 13th, depositors' claims for "priority status" were rejected and deferred to the district court of Reykjavik where legal representation could run into the thousands.
In contrast, UK and Dutch depositors with Landsbanki subsidiaries, represented by their respective governments, were awarded priority status and refunded in full within weeks of the bank's collapse in October 2008. 24-Aug-10.
Court to review FSA role over Icelandic bank collapse
The former chief executive of Singer & Friedlander is preparing to take the Financial Services Authority to judicial review over its refusal to hold an inquiry into the failure of the Icelandic banks. Tony Shearer, who led the 100-year-old City investment bank before it was taken over by Kaupthing in 2005, accuses the regulator of not doing enough to prevent the crash that cost the British taxpayer £8bn and left hundreds of UK savers out of pocket. . .
Mr Shearer has written to Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, Lord Myners, the City minister, and Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, asking for a formal inquiry into why all the warning signs about the instability and potential criminal activity at Kaupthing were ignored. . .
However, the FSA has washed its hands of responsibility for the bank's activities in London before the crash, claiming that it was powerless to act when the home regulator in Iceland was meant to be monitoring Kaupthing.
Lord Turner has told Mr Shearer that he sees no need for a public inquiry, adding "there is nothing further to be gained from further exchanges on the subject of Icelandic banks and our past regulation of banks generally".
Hundreds of UK-based savers with Kaupthing in the Isle of Man and Landsbanki in Guernsey have still not been fully compensated for their losses, while dozens of British councils, hospitals and charities are also waiting in line with commercial creditors.
"The papers have reported that you have called for the FSA to carry out a special investigation into Goldman Sachs," Mr Shearer wrote to Mr Brown. "Will you now call for the FSA to carry out and publish such an investigation into the activities in the UK of Kaupthing and the other Icelandic banks? 09-May-10.
Commons report supports Landsbanki savers
Savers with Landsbanki Guernsey who lost money during the Icelandic banking crisis have welcomed a report from a Commons committee which criticised the UK government's handling of the situation.
The Justice Committees report on the relationship between the UK, Guernsey and the Isle of Man highlighted the role played by the UK Treasury in representing the interests of the crown dependencies during its negotiations with Icelandic authorities during the crisis, and concluded that the UK had failed to look after the interests of Guernsey adequately.
Landsbanki Guernseys parent company went into administration in 2008, and Guernseys savers were amongst the worst hit of the crisis. 23-Apr-10.
Letters to the Head of Business: FSA shamed by inaction over Iceland
Sir - In 2005 as chief executive of Singer & Friedlander I explained to the Financial Services Authority why the Icelandic bank, Kaupthing, should not be allowed to take over Singer & Friedlander as its management was not "fit and proper", and so did the rest of the board. We were all ignored.
On Tuesday after the Icelandic parliament published its Truth Report into the collapse of the Icelandic banks, including Kaupthing, I wrote to the chairman of the FSA pointing out the report makes it clear that the whole Icelandic banking and regulatory system had failed massively. The honesty of the report is in stark contrast to the attitude of the FSA and the Treasury, which have refused to explain how they could have done so little, while letting these banks operate in the UK.
Did the FSA and the Treasury realise how badly run and regulated the Icelandic banks had been? And if they did, why didn't they do anything? If only they had done something many UK depositors and taxpayers would have been spared a great deal of pain, as would the whole of the Icelandic community. [Signed] Tony Shearer. Finance Comment pages, Telegraph website 18-Apr-10.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/7604349/Letters-to-the-Head-of-Business.html
Iceland has its Truth Report into the financial crisis – now what about one for the UK?
This afternoon, 45 men and women will begin the long task of reciting an astonishing saga of manipulation, deception and the betrayal of thousands of people at a theatre in central Reykjavik.
The unusual story – a 2,000 page political report – will take them four to five days to intone, taking in the events leading up to Iceland's far-reaching financial collapse that saw three banks go down in three days and its currency crippled.
There are already formal criminal investigations into suspected market manipulation, fraud, excessive loans to related parties and tax evasion connected to the banks, Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki. . . . Then there are the lessons we can learn about the chronic failure of oversight in the UK that allowed these banks to operate in a regulatory black hole on our soil.
Like my colleague, Lawrie Holmes, I’m dismayed at the contrasting complacency in Britain – how everything appears to have gone back to normal. It’s time to lay bare old City practices
Maybe the UK would need a similar wholesale collapse, rather than a near-catastrophe, for the City to engage in any similar introspection and hand-wringing. But I’d still like to see independent report, or series of reports, snooping into those darkest corners of the British banking system that are undeniably still in the shade and poorly understood by those politicians and taxpayers that stumped up the cash to bail them out. Rowena Mason - 12-Apr-10.
Iceland's vote gives UK little comfort
When one of the billionaires behind the collapsed internet bank Icesave was asked in a new film what happened to all the money, his answer was astonishingly nonchalant.
"A lot of money goes to money-heaven," shrugged Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, the London-based investor who co-owned 41pc of Icesave's parent bank, Landsbanki.
"The value that has been wiped off the stock markets, and the deposits in the banks and investment funds have gone. They have evaporated. It's a common misunderstanding to ask, 'where did the money go'?" . . .
Public outrage has been brought to a peak by the fact that there are now 43 cases of alleged criminal activity under investigation in connection with the country's scandal-hit financial institutions, including Landsbanki, and, in the country's first referendum, the 320,000 people of the island were expected to vote against a deal to compensate the UK and the Netherlands for the failure of Icesave. 06-Mar-10.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/globalbusiness/7385128/Icelands-vote-gives-UK-little-comfort.html
IMF and Sweden to delay Iceland loans
Iceland cannot agree how much it owes for the failure of Icesave's parent, Landsbanki, which meant the UK Treasury had to rescue 300,000 savers in October 2008.
Both the International Monetary Fund and Sweden signalled that their hands were tied by the fact that Iceland is unlikely to reach an agreement before a a review of aid for the country is completed later this month. 14-Jan-10.
SFO to probe collapse of Icelandic bank
Intelligence finds and plight of UK savers prompt prosecutor to investigate possible criminal activity in failure of Kaupthing.
The Serious Fraud Office is preparing to launch a formal investigation into Kaupthing, the failed Icelandic bank, amid suspicions that it may have been involved in criminal activity.
According to sources, the SFO is expected to announce this week that following four months of intelligence gathering it is to launch an official inquiry. The prosecutor is expected to appoint one of its most experienced investigators to take charge. 12-Dec-09.
One year on, questions about Iceland’s banking collapse still remain
It is a year since the Icelandic banks failed and neither the British nor the Icelandic government have told the whole story of how and why they fell.
“How could a bank apparently be well financed last summer and then go bankrupt in autumn?” asked a big client of one of the Icelandic banks when I spoke to him recently. The short answer is that banking is an elusive business based on trust – and trust was in short supply when the three Icelandic banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir, failed last October.
The long answer as to why the three Icelandic banks collapsed so spectacularly will hopefully be answered in a forthcoming report by an Icelandic parliamentary commission. The word is already out that the saga will be a sinister one. An office of a special prosecutor set up in Iceland to deal with alleged fraud related to the banks underlines this message. This new Icelandic saga has a UK ramification: the prosecutor now co-operates with the Serious Fraud Office. However, the UK authorities have never clarified their action against the Icelandic banks a year ago. 07-Oct-09.
SFO to investigate possible criminal intentions in Iceland's collapsed banks
The Serious Fraud Office is sending a team of investigators to Iceland to help "get to the bottom" of whether there were any criminal intentions in the country's collapsed banks, which had extensive links with London. . .
The SFO also met yesterday with Eva Joly, a French corruption expert and judge brought in as a consultant to the Icelandic government, who believes that the criminal investigation is likely to be the biggest Europe has ever known. More than 30 house searches have been conducted in Iceland and 60 people hauled in for questioning.
But Ms Joly said the FSA and other British authorities must also bear some shared blame for failure to regulate the Icelandic banks properly.
"The UK in my opinion has a responsibility for not controlling Icelandic banks, like Icesave, that were operating here," she said. "They were given some warnings about the banks and they did not do anything. This to my mind has been very harmful." 11-Sep-09.
