Vanguard News Network
VNN Media
VNN Digital Library
VNN Reader Mail
VNN Broadcasts

Old October 10th, 2008 #1
dogman
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,499
Default Iceland and UK in diplomatic war over banks

Iceland and UK in diplomatic war over banks

LUCIA KUBOSOVA

Today @ 09:22 CET

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused Iceland of "illegal action" for freezing the accounts of UK private and public depositors in collapsed banks.

"What happened in Iceland is completely unacceptable. I've been in touch with the Icelandic prime minister. I said this is effectively illegal action that they have taken," Mr Brown told the BBC about Reykjavik's move to nationalise several Icelandic banks while preventing their British customers to access their money.

Iceland has been pummelled by the ongoing bank crisis as its bank debts are many times its annual GDP of €14 billion, with fears that the entire nation of 320,000 people could go bankrupt.

On Thursday (9 October), the country's government took over the last of three major banks and shut down the stock exchange. Trading in the Icelandic krona has ceased and foreign banks are not willing to take the currency even for lower rates.

Reykjavik is supposed to pay out as much as €20,000 in compensation per frozen account at a total cost of €2.7 billion, but London has not received assurance that public authorities in Iceland will meet this commitment.

The UK government has promised to protect hundreds of thousands private savers affected by the failed Icelandic banks but it is not clear what will happen to the over €1.1 billion that British public authorities such as councils, the police and fire services have invested in Iceland.

"This is fundamentally a problem with the Icelandic-registered financial
services authority - they have failed not only the people of Iceland, they have failed people in Britain," complained Mr Brown.

In a bid to boost pressure on the country's authorities, the British government has itself invoked the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act of 2001 in a bid to freeze the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK - which sparked an angry reaction by Reykjavik.

Iceland's prime minister, Geir Haarde, told journalists it was "not very pleasant" to find out that "a terrorist law was being applied against us," adding that he considered it as a "completely unfriendly act."

"I'm afraid that not many governments would have taken that very kindly, to be put in that category and I told the chancellor that we were not pleased with that," Mr Haarde said.

It is expected that Iceland will have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help and forced to accept strict disciplinary budget measures to restore fiscal and monetary stability.

Next Tuesday, Reykjavik is expected to start talks with Russia over an emergency €4 billion Moscow has offered to provide to Reykjavik.

http://euobserver.com/9/26905
 
Old October 10th, 2008 #2
Blake Smith
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 271
Default

What is my local city council doing sending £40 million of the public's hard earned local council tax money to ICELAND in the first place?
 
Reply

Share


Thread
Display Modes


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:53 AM.
Page generated in 0.05874 seconds.