Financial crisis in Iceland, from Uboat.net

[Dan D]

I know a guy who is afraid that he has lost all his money, so I did some research for him:
First of all, one has to realise that Iceland has only 300.000 people!
That is the population of a medium-sized city, at least here in Germany. To go bankrupt with a such a small „business company“ is not unthinkable and not impossible.
The Islandic banks alone owe 61 billion Euro to depositors. The German branch of the Kaupthing bank which is one of the 3 Islandic banks who all have been nationalised recently, ows about 308 million Euro to 30.800 German depositors. The German depositors have no longer access to their bank accounts. The bank has blocked the online access. In reaction the German financial supervision has imposed a moratorium to stop money transfer from Germany to Iceland. The deposits are secured by the Iclandic deposit guarantees fund only which is worth shice under the circumstances.
If you look at the homepage of that fund, it says:
„Are deposits in foreign branches of Icelandic banks guaranteed by the Fund?
Yes. The Fund’s guarantees extend to all customers of Icelandic banks and their branches, both domestic and foreign, irrespective of legal address. Foreign deposits with subsidiaries of Icelandic banks are guaranteed by the guarantee funds in the countries concerned.“
http://www.tryggingarsjodur.is/QA/

This does not go together with statements by the Islandic head of governement which you could read in the news, that only Islandic customers would get payments from the fund. Gordon Brown became very upset at this point because Iceland „as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) has adopted all EU Directives making Iceland an integral part of the European Internal Market for financial services and consumer protection. The Icelandic deposit guarantee scheme is based on the EU directive 94/19/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.... Iceland is legally obliged, in the same way as countries which are members to the EU, to provide the minimum deposit protection of EUR 20,000 as stated in the EU directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes.“(from the fund's page).
Concerning Germany, the Islandic banks did not join the German guarantee fund which in comparison guarantees you a 1,5 million Euro protection.

From the news you get the impression that the Islandic head of state does either not know what he is talking about or that the situation is that deperate: Iceland is unable to pay anyway.

Gordon Brown has threatened to sue Iceland. The situation in England is different from that in Germany. Far more depositors have paid much more money into the Icelandic bank accounts, not only individuals but also English town councils. Because of the different situation England now has given loans to Iceland with the appropriation that the English depositors get their money back, if I understand the news from England correctly. The German depositors can not hope for such a political solution. At least at present, the German government officials are not willing to help out here because according to their reading, the depositors should have known that they are running a high risk to lose their money and have to blame themselves for being too greedy.

So if you can't get your money back and no compensation either because the fund it too small or rather the Icelandic state can not guarantee payments because it is insolvent, the last option for claimants would be to see, if a case can be made against their own national state for faulty bank supervision when Islandic banks entered the market.

Here is the link for the application for compensation from the Icelandic fund:
http://www.tryggingarsjodur.is/modul...mpensation.doc

[XabbaRus]

Well there was one guy up here who had money in Icesave or whatever it is called.

About £200,000 I think. He read that the bank was facing trouble and BEFORE it stopped people withdrawing he moved the money over to his UK mainland bank account.

He got an e-mail from both ends confirming the transfer had taken place. He checks his account and sees the money sitting there. Then Thursday after Icesave has stopped withdrawals he checks his account and he sees the money has been transferred back and no one told him.

So he is claiming it is stolen. I sympathise with him. I know it can take a couple of days even over the net for money to go through but he moved it several days before the announcement on a freeze on withdrawals.

[kiwi_2005]

I tried to post in the forums there, wanted to answer a guys post who wanted to know if any Japanese subs during ww2 came near New Zealand waters but everytime i went to send post i would get a message about it being spam!

I can never post in that forum always comes up that im a spammer And yes i do have JavaScript enabled.

[Jimbuna]

I came across one person in RL who actually made the comment, "I'm glad my wife shops at ASDA and not Iceland"

[Stormin Norman]

Massive protests using motorbikes (Neil will love this) in Iceland.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-143003

[Marcantilan]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Interesting to see how the interest in such stories grows the closer the place it where they take place. In Argentine some years ago, things were more serious, I would say, but almost nobody gave a damn.

However, Argentine is on the path of recovery, somewhat, so even if Iceland may fall even deeper, sooner or later it reaches the point from where things can only improve again.

Well, we had pretty rough times back in 2001. Our government freezed all bank accounts with foreign currency and exchanged it for pesos.

Besides that, you couldn´t extract those pesos from the bank (just spare change every day).

Argentina collapsed and the president fled from the "Pink House" (no kidding, that´s the name of our presidential palace). Poverty increased by 100 %, so on, so on.

Now, we are walking the same path, while the government is trying to secure the pension funds (my pension fund, por example!) for its use.

In my humble opinion, Iceland is in the paradise right now if compared to past, present or future Argentina. At least they don´t have our corrupt politics in the office.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Marcantilan

Well, we had pretty rough times back in 2001. Our government freezed all bank accounts with foreign currency and exchanged it for pesos.

Besides that, you couldn´t extract those pesos from the bank (just spare change every day).

Argentina collapsed and the president fled from the "Pink House" (no kidding, that´s the name of our presidential palace). Poverty increased by 100 %, so on, so on.

Now, we are walking the same path, while the government is trying to secure the pension funds (my pension fund, por example!) for its use.

In my humble opinion, Iceland is in the paradise right now if compared to past, present or future Argentina. At least they don´t have our corrupt politics in the office.

I think you hit the nail on the head with your last sentence.

The main difference between Agentina and Iceland is the corruption in political circles.