Icesave repayment talks collapse

[TomClash]

Source: Financial Times

cesave repayment talks collapse

By Alex Barker in London and Andrew Ward in Stockholm

Published: February 25 2010 21:29 | Last updated: February 25 2010 21:29

Talks have collapsed between Britain, the Netherlands and Iceland about repayment of £3.4bn (€3.8bn) lost by depositors in the failed online bank Icesave, raising fears that the country will fail to meet its obligations.

Iceland on Monday rejected an offer to soften repayment terms, British officials said. It dismissed a proposed reduction in interest rates as insufficient and failed to win support for a counter-offer that one negotiator described as “fanciful”.

The breakdown in the talks dashed hopes of avoiding a March 6 referendum in Iceland, in which an original repayment deal is expected to be resoundingly rejected. A no vote would plunge Iceland into fresh turmoil, threatening the survival of the government and its flow of international financial support.

snip

The government is resigned to an overwhelming no vote in the referendum on March 6. Officials said it would not make any serious attempt to campaign for a yes vote. The result could destabilise the Icelandic government, which has staked its credibility on resolving the Icesave issue. The left-leaning coalition narrowly won parliamentary backing for the repayment deal in December but the legislation was blocked by President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, triggering the referendum.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc5eb85e-2251-11df-9a72-00144feab49a.html

[Demeter]

1. It's NOT Iceland's Obligation to Pay Up for Criminals

especially when the criminals are living in London on the money they looted from the Brits.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Iceland Minister: Still In Icesave Talks With UK, Netherlands

Iceland is still in talks on how it should compensate the U.K. and Netherlands for money lost in the collapse of online bank Icesave, and hopes to reach an agreement to avoid a referendum, Icelandic Communications Minister Kristjan Moller said Friday.

His remarks, made at a conference in Milan along with the French Ambassador to Iceland, Thorir Ibsen, contradict a statement Feb. 25 made by Iceland's Finance Ministry that the discussion "has adjourned without a final resolution" and that "Icelandic voters will go to the polls March 6, 2010, to vote on whether to approve the terms of an Icesave deal."

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100226-704392.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope

[Dr.Phool]

3. The voters will tell them.....

Stick it right up your Aurora Borealis.

Same thing we should have told AIG and Goldman Sucks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Not precisely the same situation, though

Neither AIG nor Goldman Sachs had customers with savings accounts.

This is about who is responsible for giving back to non-Icelandic depositors the first €20,000 in their savings accounts - the Icelandic government (as they had promised to, and had set up a body that supposedly guaranteed the deposits, but hadn't realised they couldn't afford to any more, because the bank had grown so much), or the UK and Dutch governments (who, just like the Icelandic government, hadn't done anything to stop the Icelandic bank offering the savings accounts in their countries).

If you want the equivalent, it's more like Washington Mutual. This would be like the FDIC saying it would refund the deposits of Americans, but not Canadians, because they thought the Canadian government should do it.

[dipsydoodle]

4. The issue may have some bearing on

Iceland's application for EU membership.

Do new members have to adopt the Euro ? :shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. No, they don't have to adopt it

In fact, no new member has adopted it straight away (typically, they've had weaker economies anyway - of the possible new EU members, I'd say only Switzerland and Norway could join the Euro immediately if they wanted to and the rules allow).

It will have a bearing on EU membership, though - the UK, and probably the Netherlands, will veto Iceland joining until they've got a deal they're OK with.

[dipsydoodle]

7. I hope you don't get a visit

from the ending a sentence with a preposition police. :rofl:

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. That's the kind of visit

up with which I would not put. :evilgrin:

[dipsydoodle]

9. Nice one !

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. I stole it from Churchill

:blush:

[Diclotican]

10. muriel_volestrangler

muriel_volestrangler

First Norway have to wote, to go into EU, and I seriousy doubt that wil come anytime soon...We are happy campers as it is, outside of Eu. And i also doubt seriosy that we wil loose our krone for Euro...

Diclotican

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Yes, I agree with that

I was just saying that Norway's economy is strong enough that there'd be no objection to it joining the euro if it ever decided it wanted to.

[Diclotican]

13. muriel_volestrangler

muriel_volestrangler

But why should Norway loose our krone, to get into a currency who for the moment looks like it wil go the same way as the doodoo?, if not the whole of EU step in and work the economical bit out little better than they have been doing the last couple of years... Many of the poorer EU country have an economy who are a mess withouth end and a crash in many of the memberstates is more than just an fear some politicans have on their mind... Greece are in trouble, so are most of the former eastern block country who are in EU or want to be member of the union...

Norway have a healty economy, mutch thanks to strong laws and disiplined policy since the early 1990s when our banks allmoust fall over, becouse of the "party of the decade" from the middle of 1970s to the middle of the 1980s.. And the law are there today, and have made the banks in Norway some of the most safe banks to operate from...

Not to say we also have an government, who for the most have been on the safe side, even when we had some conservative in power, when it came to money... And today we have a lot of money in the bank, to a rainy day.

And we dosen't go to war anymore, we save a lot of money that way.. Even tho we are active in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force there..

Dicloican

[Rapier09]

14. Don't forget Svalbard

The Pride of Norway.

[Diclotican]

15. Rapier09

Rapier09

True, but now is Svalbard a part of Norway then, With Bear Isle-land (Bjørneøya) and some other iselands.. It is the Law of Norway who are the norm in Svalbard, and even the russians who have a sivilian base there, have to accept the soverniegny of Norway when it come to the rule of law.. Have been that sice The Treay of Svalbard was signed in 1929..

And we also have a isleland in the pasific.. Bouvet Island is Norwigian land.. Even tho it is not mutch to say about it really

Diclotican