Icelandic Banks - The thread for OFFSHORE savers

In answer to:

Do any of the guarantees of the subsidiary by the parent company entitle us also to compensation under the parent company's home-country scheme e.g. the Icelandic scheme in the case of Kaupthing?


The exact wording on the Landsbanki Guernsey site today states:

Q & As

8. Are my deposits covered by the Icelandic or UK Deposit Protection Schemes?

No, these schemes do not cover deposits of Landsbanki Guernsey Limited

occamsrazor wrote: »

The Isle of Man Government has just announced the intention to increase its depositor's protection scheme to £50,000, though this still needs to be approved before it takes effect:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Manx-Government-increases-savings-protection.4566940.jp

This is certainly good news for offshore savers, though I would like to know more details about exactly how the increase will be funded:

"the new scheme had come after negotiations with banks who had agreed to put in extra funds to cover the scheme, although the Treasury said details of the banks' contributions had yet to be finalised."

to be approved later this month. Not fast enough for me.

Although i doubt how much the IOM could fund having massive deposits and few taxpayers. (covering from other banks will not cover a bank failure, in my opinion)

Bank gives assurance to customers




Published Date: 07 October 2008
MANX customers of the Isle of Man branch of the Iceland-based Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander bank have been given a reassurance by the company after concerns over its future.


First, there were moves by the Icelandic government's Central Bank to support the bank with a 500 million Euro loan.

Then some customers wanting to make inquiries or move funds found that they couldn't get through when they phoned the Isle of Man branch in St George's Street, Douglas.

One customer from England phoned iomtoday to say he had been phoning the branch for 24-hours and when he finally got through the phone was immediately put down by whoever answered it at the bank.

A spokesman for Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander said this was due to problems with the phone network.

'We did have some telecom issues on Monday which we understand may have led to some callers not being able to get through to our offices,' said the spokesman.

'We have looked into this, taken the appropriate action, and we are confident this issue has now been resolved.'

Commenting on the government loan issue the spokesman said the company was keen to point out that Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander had not been nationalised.

The spokesman said there was some confusion as the Icelandic bank Landsbanki had been taken over by the government.

'The Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, was taken over by the Icelandic Government,' said the spokesman.

'Furthermore, just over a week ago, the government announced the purchase of a 75 per cent stake in Glitnir (Iceland's third largest bank].

'The Central Bank is now supporting Kaupthing.

'Kaupthing has received support from the government in the form of a 500 million euro loan from the Central Bank to facilitate the continuation of business as usual.

'In addition, the Central Bank has just announced that Iceland has received a four billion euro loan from the Russian Government, which will help stabilise the Icelandic krona and inject much needed liquidity into the Icelandic financial system.

'Kaupthing will remain a public company and will maintain its strong leadership role in the Icelandic financial markets.'

The company's spokesman also said that the Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander website was operating normally although it was experiencing a higher than normal level of usage.

'We are not aware of any specific problem with our website,' added the spokesman.

'We believe all banks are experiencing increased website traffic in the current climate which could be restricting access for some users.

'Due to ongoing general market turbulence, plus the recent events in Iceland, our call centre is much busier than usual, or than we had anticipated, and, whilst we have strengthened our team, there are still some customers who are experiencing difficulty in contacting us.

'We apologise to any clients who have been inconvenienced by this, and would ask that they remain patient with us and try to contact us again.'

The statement ended by reminding customers that deposits held with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in the Isle of Man were covered by the depositors' compensation scheme.

This means that if the bank suffered a collapse customers would receive up to 75 per cent of the eligible protected deposit up to a maximum compensation payment to any one depositor of £15,000.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Bank-gives-assurance-to-customers.4567429.jp