Icelandic Banks - The thread for OFFSHORE savers

occamsrazor

florence_2008 wrote: »

All I have heard is that the Isle of Man company was having a meeting this afternoon to dicuss there position. I can't find any info on the outcome of this meeting. Does anyone have any more informationon this? Cheers.

Not really, but Manx Radio just published this:
Kaupthing statement expected tomorrow

08/10/2008 08:06:13
The wait goes on for customers of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Isle of Man.

This afternoon's board meeting continued into the evening, following news the United Kingdom arm of the Icelandic group has been placed into administration.

Concerned customers are trying to find out what is happening to their money, but a statement is not expected until tomorrow.

Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (Isle of Man) Limited is not formally part of the UK sub-group but has a significant business relationship with Kaupthing in the UK.

A number of Isle of Man customers queued up outside the Douglas office today in an attempt to get information.

KSF Isle of Man also put up a message on its website, apologising for difficulties experienced by people trying to get through on phone lines.

occamsrazor

More re: proposed increases to the Isle of Man depositors's protection scheme.

Manx Radio reports the government will meet tomorrow at 10:30am to discuss this and they will have coverage on their AM frequency 1368, which if you really want to sit through I believe you can listen to online through the "Listen AM" link (currently playing music!)

http://www.manxradio.com/readNEwsItem.aspx?id=26598

christ

I can't see that being worth the paper it's written on. They will just increase it to make it look as if it is doing something. Maybe I'm being too downbeat but if KSF goes down it will owe hundreds of millions and I can't see The Isle of Man having anything like enough money in it's comp scheme.

florence_2008

Thanks occamsrazor. I'll have a look in morning to see what's happening.

To be honest, I'm pretty sceptical about increases to the Isle of Man depositors's protection scheme as I'm also trying to figure out how they can afford to provide this level of gaurantee.

occamsrazor

christ wrote: »

I can't see that being worth the paper it's written on. They will just increase it to make it look as if it is doing something. Maybe I'm being too downbeat but if KSF goes down it will owe hundreds of millions and I can't see The Isle of Man having anything like enough money in it's comp scheme.

It's true the IoM scheme nature of funding (post-problem by a charge on the other banks) isn't reassuring. Their own website says:

Compensation is paid out of levies collected from other banks in the Isle of Man. Levies are collected at a maximum of £250,000 per bank per year. As there are a limited number of banks which pay levies, it may take many years for compensation to be paid to depositors. This period will also vary according to when liquidation proceeds are collected from the failed bank and how much is recovered. There is no "standing fund" of compensation (i.e. money is not collected before a bank failure).

Saying that I'm wondering if they will start looking to a better source of funding, as in this current climate they will see a lot of people pulling out money if they don't beef up their scheme.

christ

This is with the benefit of hindsight but the people running things in IOM don't appear to be the best. There is a lot of critisism of them knocking around on various blogs. You spend your time on a sleepy island where nothing happens and when it does you don't know what to do.
Gibraltar is coming under fire for being slow too and having a 'it won't affect me' sort of attitude.

occamsrazor

florence_2008 wrote: »

To be honest, I'm pretty sceptical about increases to the Isle of Man depositors's protection scheme as I'm also trying to figure out how they can afford to provide this level of gaurantee.

Yeah, I agree. One commenter on an Isle of Man residents forum discussing the scheme said this (I've no idea as to the accuracy):

"the total deposits on the Isle of Man on the 30th June 2008 was 53.77 BILLION pounds and the GDP of the island 2006/2007 was a mere 1.8 BILLION pounds"

Of course the current IoM scheme is funded by post-problem levies on banks, but you see the fundamental problem....

occamsrazor

christ wrote: »

This is with the benefit of hindsight but the people running things in IOM don't appear to be the best.

Maybe so, but it's the sheer scale of the current global banking crisis that is overwhelming everyone... Frankly I feel sorry for the smaller places that are getting hit by this.

Am sure there's many others on this forum who today would disagree, but actually I feel very sorry for Iceland the country itself - they are facing near total collapse and there's 300,000ish people there who really did nothing wrong but look to be paying a horrible price for the actions of those who lent sub-prime mortgages in the US. What a crazy world....

christ

I feel sorry for the average Icelander as well but not half as sorry as I feel for myself.
I need to be put out of my misery, then at least I can come to terms with it all and try to move on.

mc2

Pensioner05 wrote: »

I would like to get together the group of savers in Landsbanki Guernsey to speak with one voice
:
Please let me have your views and lets band together for a common cause.

Count me in too! I'm also retired, having returned to the UK a few years ago, and have had funds in LG (or Cheshire Guernsey, as they were before) for many years.

I have (had? ) £30k in a 60-day notice account. Frustratingly I requested to withdraw it and close the account just shy of two months ago ('cos I'll soon be in need of the funds, rather than 'cos of fear they might go bust), and it would have been sent to my onshore a/c next Monday....

Anyway, I don't know what, if anything, I/we/anyone can/should do at this point, other than pray (and walk around the house swearing a lot!), but I'll definitely add my voice to anything that can be done.