UK Govt to ensure savers get money back

dougz_2

Darling just said on BBC News that ALL deposits will be safe, he clarified that means all amounts in full not just the first 50k

puddleduck

AD has just been on BBC1 and was clear that he will make sure UK Icesave savers will get all of their money back (the over £50k limit wasn't mentioned). He said he talked to Iceland yesterday and they said there wasn't any money in their compensation scheme to pay what they legally should, but that he will make sure we get paid by the UK instead.
He said that they will pursue Iceland for the money they will end up owing the UK separately. He said there will be announcement later about this.

GWEPM

Does anyone know if this guarantee applies to small business savings accounts as well. Or is it just private investors that are covered?

blizeH

I think it's awesome that all deposits are guaranteed, so huge props to AD for sorting this out.

Very, very disappointed by Iceland showing no intention to fulfil their obligations though, utterly appalling IMO.

MSE_Martin

UPDATE:

Its now 'looking' like all cash will be coming back not just £50,000 though a statement and exact clarification is due later... but don't get your hopes up until we KNOW for sure.

Jimbo001

If I understand Martins latest update correctly there is still no additional guarantee from Darling for IceSave Savers.

There is talk about him standing behind us and helping us but that is just political waffle which is not a guarantee.

Jocten

blizeH wrote: »

I assume that any interest accrued will be void, and that our ISA allowance will be reset to zero, but if I'm honest, as nice as these things would be, I don't think it's a huge deal, and I for one am just going to be happy to get my money back.

Same here.
Pheeeeeeew, what a huge sigh of relief. :coffee:

Jocten.

IT_nerd

Where the hell is our government going to pluck £16bn from ???

WilliamT

blizeH wrote: »

I assume that any interest accrued will be void, and that our ISA allowance will be reset to zero, but if I'm honest, as nice as these things would be, I don't think it's a huge deal, and I for one am just going to be happy to get my money back.

Is there something I'm missing as to why people keep assuming this? (I admit to having an interest here as the majority of my Icesave account - which was within the compensation limits anyway - is a cash ISA that's accumulated over the years and been transferred from bank to bank.)

The tax component of people's existing ISA interest is clearly but a fraction of the (up to) £4bn its going to cost to rescue Icesave, and that in turn is a fraction of the £50bn deal with the 8 leading banks. So it strikes me that it would be extraordinarily bad PR on the part of the treasury to take it away from people.

I think perhaps people are uncertain about this because we don't know precisely how the compensation scheme is going to work - from the slim amount of *accurate* information that was circulating in the media and online yesterday, I inferred that the FSA hadn't even designed the forms they will need to send out.

They do however, clearly have a list of all depositers, and there's nothing to suggest any of the account data has been lost. And my understand is that whenever you open an ISA or money is paid into it, HRMC get all the details (assuming the disk used to send them is not lost in transit.)

So personally, until we know otherwise (we might get more detail in the 12.30 statement) I'm working on the assumption the ISA tax wrapper will be safe (presumably it'll remain dormant in the Icesave account until you've chosen where to transfer it - you wouldn't want to have to move it twice, into a holding account and then onwards..)

Someone mentioned interest - for this reason I've always opted for monthly interest rather than annual. I can't remember the last time I saw an account where you lost out by choosing monthly over annual, the AER always seems to be the same. I assume banks offer annual interest by default is simply to allow them to use the money elsewhere until they absolutely have to pay it.

Finally, no matter how the UK government intends to spin it, I do have sympathy for residents of Iceland itself and it annoys me when I see people in other threads describe it as a "tin pot" country. Its the highest developed country in the world according to the UN (based on life expectancy, literacy, and GDP) and 99% of their electricity (70% of their overall energy consumption) comes from renewables such as hydroelectric and geothermal power. They're not in the EU, but in my opinion, demonstrate far greater responsibility than many countries that are. They do seem to have been dropped in it by their neighbours - what happened to this Nordic guarantee?

altocumulus

IT_nerd wrote: »

Where the hell is our government going to pluck £16bn from ???

Who knows, the stockmarket has dropped almost 7% after just over an hour of trading this morning, to show their support to the Chancellors latest bank saving move...