Iceland hires London’s top law firm

London05

The UK government rescued Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley savers, in one instance by selling to another Bank.

Why did Iceland not arrange that the IceSave part of Landsbank was sold to another bank? The IceSave division was surely all deposits?

Did not the law the UK government used also apply to proceeds of crime?

It was criminal that they were still taking deposits when they knew they were in trouble.

Advice to Iceland's lawyers - get your fees upfront!!!

oldandgrumpy

According to Martin, Iceland believes that the uk govt acted unlawfully in transferring KE and HB to ING, thus causing the downfall of Iceland. Well that's how I read it. So they may well have a case!

StarRover

Taken from www.icenews.is today.

Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, a major shareholder of Landsbanki, said this week that deposits with the collapsed savings brand Icesave could have been guaranteed by the UK if the Icelandic Central Bank had agreed to back a British transfer plan with a multi-million pound guarantee.

In the interview, which was broadcast on the Icelandic news programme Kompas on Monday night, Bjorgolfsson revealed that the day before Landsbanki was nationalised in Iceland, the UK Financial Supervisory Authority had offered to accept Icesave deposits under a British guarantee within 5 days, provided Landsbanki submitted GBP 200 million in collateral from the Icelandic Central Bank.

Bjorgolfsson suggested that the Central Bank’s refusal to grant Landsbanki the loan, which would have allowed them to accept the British offer, might have been the trigger behind the seizure of Icelandic bank assets in the UK which many believe led to the total collapse of the Icelandic banking system.

According to Bjorgolfsson, the Icelandic government therefore bears considerable responsibility for the collapse of Icesave and for plunging the country into an international dispute.

baby_boomer

fatpig wrote: »

We should nuke them.

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That's a great way to get our money back :rotfl:

Count_Dante

Tom_Jones wrote: »

If that's the case, can you lend me 100k, I will pay you back but if I go bankrupt then tough ti tty on you.

Yes, that is how it works.

GeorgeHowell

It all goes to show :-

*** DO NOT PUT YOUR MONEY IN FOREIGN BASED BANKS ***

They will look after number one -- ie their own economy, investors, and savers -- and they will rip you off it that's what it takes.

JayTee99_2

StarRover wrote: »

According to Bjorgolfsson, the Icelandic government therefore bears considerable responsibility for the collapse of Icesave and for plunging the country into an international dispute.

Interesting post, and it seems Iceland are now having some problems with cross-border payments; they're now using their central bank as an intermediary.



But did anyone see Channel 4 a little earlier ?
it seems that Landsbanki was indeed a car crash waiting to happen as far back as the spring of this year!

They approached our govt asking for money, it was refused but suggestion made to involve IMF.
The IMF assessed the situation and decided that the banks were too large and refused.

So people were well aware, but nothing was done.
Wow, that changes things on a number of fronts..

Skuld

nilrem wrote: »

Not quite what happened though is it! Landsbanki are still operating in Iceland and Icelandic savers were able to access their accounts as usual, IMHO they are using our money, interpret it how you like but many people including myself felt that we had been mugged and robbed!

What happened in Iceland is that in just three days, three of it's largest PRIVATLY OWNED banks collaped(virtually the whole banking system)..The bank were bankrupt, so the parliament passed emergency laws to ensure that they were able to take over the banks in order to try and save the economy of an enire nation..Due to this nationalization, they had to feeze the UK accounts...
Why??
Because there was only a certain amount of money that the Icelandic government was supposed to repay the UK saver...
But had they not frozen the accounts, just what would keep the Uk savers from transferring their money to a different bank??
In Iceland this wasn't a problem...there wasn't a single bank to transfer to...
As for Landsbanki..well NO it doesn't really exist any more...when a company goes bancrupt..it needs a new social security number and a name...it's called NBI today..
And we are not using your money..the only thing the regular household in Iceland has is DEPT...80% of homes here are heading straight into bankcrupsy..if we had all your cash, we would all be buying Range Rovers(aka Game Overs)..
We really do feel for you regular savers in the UK, and I personally think that it is our moral obligation to pay every single penny that we are supposed to pay...
If I have to dig a hole with bloody hands for 50 years, I would do so insted of having my nation stamped as thieves..

Cheers

Skuld

JayTee99 wrote: »

Interesting post, and it seems Iceland are now having some problems with cross-border payments; they're now using their central bank as an intermediary.



But did anyone see Channel 4 a little earlier ?
it seems that Landsbanki was indeed a car crash waiting to happen as far back as the spring of this year!

They approached our govt asking for money, it was refused but suggestion made to involve IMF.
The IMF assessed the situation and decided that the banks were too large and refused.

So people were well aware, but nothing was done.
Wow, that changes things on a number of fronts..

Haha are we having cross border payment problems...I can't even transfer 100 euro to Germany without sending a request to the central bank..
But getting money out of the island is the least of our problems...we can't get it in..
For SOME STRANGE REASON all transfers to Iceland seem to be frozen in the UK..
Really there are numerous companies(in the fishing industry) that are layin off people because their money has been frozen in the UK for weeks now...talk about terrorism..lol

As for help..well Iceland has been asking for help(also news to me) since march..We got a NO from te UK, the US, the EU, so it seem we finally turned to Russia this summer..
I'm personally really offended by this and so is practically every one on this island...
We sent the Uk tonnes of food during WWII(with casualties), we allowde the US to A**f*** us for 50 years during the cold war, and we put our previously good name on the Iraq war "nation of the willing"..
Great friends we have ay..

But hey..blame it on the Cod

JayTee99_2

StarRover wrote: »

According to Bjorgolfsson, the Icelandic government therefore bears considerable responsibility for the collapse of Icesave and for plunging the country into an international dispute.

Now chan4 news are saying 'everyone' was aware problems with the Icelandic banks much earlier..

Tonight Channel 4 News can reveal that the British government and the financial regulator were aware of serious problems in the Icelandic banking system as early as March, but chose to take no action.
Should customers, particularly institutional investors, like charities and local government bodies, have been informed?

Watch again

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