Iceland must look after depositors, says Prime Minister
Wednesday 22nd October 2008, 1:00PM BST.
PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown has said it is Iceland’s responsibility to look after Britons with money in failed Icelandic banks through branches in Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
He was pushed on the issue during a Common’s debate by Conservative MP Graham Brady.
‘What is the Government doing to protect the interests of the many British people who hold deposits in Icelandic banks through branches in British dependent territories such as Guernsey and the Isle of Man?’ asked Mr Brady.
Mr Brown said that discussion on those matters were continuing with the Icelandic authorities.
‘We believe that they have a responsibility in this matter and we will continue to pursue that with them,’ he added.
Last week it was announced that the UK would support the Crown Dependencies in their dealings with Iceland as they worked to get savers their money back after the collapses of Landsbanki and Kaupthing.
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Typical non-answer!
How about GB/HMG returning Offshore depositors 100% of their deposits immediately – as he has for UK based savers – them getting the funds back from Iceland in due course. Afterall GB/HMG kicked it off in the first place!
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As a depositor who has £250k to lose in the Kaupthing(IOM) debacle as a result of the UK Government’s unlawful intervention of Landsbanki debacles precipitating the banks collapse. I hear that the UK Government has gone to Iceland to finalise talks regarding the return of Council money whereas we in the IOM, and in Guernsey are left out to dry.
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As a KSF IOM depositor, at least some recognition that we exist – thats a start. Although I can see that the approach is to transfer ‘responsibility’ to Iceland. Well, as the UK Govn has had a principle hand in the default of KSF IOM & L/banki Guernsey, then they (UK Gov) must also take responsibility. I hope situation can be quickly resolved with 100% savings recovery – nothing else will do.
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Gordon Brown seems to have conveniently forgotten that he was the one that effectively caused Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander IOM to collapse when he took the decision to use the Anti Terriorism Act to seize Kaupthing UK assets!
Has he also forgot that his duty is to look after British Citizens and we in turn look after him by voting ……Not a chance!
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Since HMG are holding between five and six hundred million GBP of KSF IOM depositors money in the UK we (the IOM depositors) should be included with all the UK savers when it comes to getting money out of Iceland.
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The UK government has been widely reported as having frozen what they refer to as “The Icelandic Assets”. What has not been reported in any detail is that many of these assets were in fact funds from offshore banking accounts belonging to thousands of innocent depositors of which many are British expats. These are the details:
Kaupthing Isle of Man had between £540-590 Million transferred to the UK subsidiary of Kaupthing shortly before Kaupthing UK was shut down for what has been described by official sources as “safekeeping”. This transfer was made after consultation between the UK regulatory and the IOM regulatory authorities. I don’t know exactly what the phrase “safekeeping” refers to but it seems to indicate that there were concerns earlier with regards to the stability of the bank. These funds were then frozen when the UK regulatory shut down Kaupthing in the UK. As of now there have been no statements as to whether these funds will be returned to the depositors of Isle of man and it looks like there may be no intention to do this. To use the words of the liquidator of Kaupthing Isle of Man reporting of the intentions of the liquidators of the UK subsidiary:
“it was very clear that their sole priority, as per the Court Order appointing them, is the transfer of the UK bank’s retail deposits to ING, and anything else is currently of secondary importance”
The liquidator continues further down in the same paragraph:
“Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that the Court papers relating to their appointment are sealed, which means we cannot examine them to determine the reasons for their appointment or any other related matters.”
Source: http://www.kaupthingsingers.co.uk/Pages/3989
Gordon Brown recently answered a question in Parliament from MP Graham Brady about the fate of the offshore depositors and stated that Iceland must look after them. Hence adding it all up it looks like the UK government may have confiscated the £540-590 Million belonging to the IOM depositors to finance the ING take over and then washes its hands by referring us to Iceland.
It therefore seems the UK government was at best instrumental in bringing down Kaupthing Isle of Man when it closed own Kaupthing UK and froze the funds of IOM subsidiary. At worst however it looks like it is actively engaged in 21st century piracy having negotiated the transfer of £540-590 Million for “safekeeping” from the IOM to the UK where after it confiscated these funds to make the deal with ING possible.
Most of the Isle of Man depositors are not expecting bailout from the UK government financed by the UK tax payer. However we do also not expect to have our money confiscated by the UK government to finance the UK onshore protection scheme. I suspect the media has just seen the start of this story as there is likely to be much more publicity in the future once the legal action against the government starts.
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If what K. Eriksen posts above is true there’s an even bigger scandal to emerge.. and we thought it couldn’t get worse!
If the IoM and Guernsey authorities have authorised local deposits to be transfered to their UK companies and the British Govt then ‘grab’ those funds then this suggests both Guernsey and IoM have acted complicitly in depositors losing their funds. That would be absolutely scandelous.
I sincerely hope it’s not true as nobody would deposit a penny hereafter given we also have/had no consumer protection too. Either way the British (and Guernsey authorities) have a duty to see deposits repatriated. I hope depositors here have real transparency with the administrators unlike the British Govts unacceptably shadey dealings!
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http://www.indefence.is
What is more to say
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I would like for the sake of British depositors in Guernsey to ask HM Treasury to clarify its comments made in the week commencing 6 October that ‘no individual British saver will lose money in consequence of the collapse of the Icelandic banking system’.
Muy mother has her life savings in Landsbanki Guernsey and took comfort from A Darlings assurances only now to find that there seems to be a retreat from the position.
It does seem to many of us that if there is to be the imposition of freezing order on Icelandic assets in the UK so that the parent bank cannot in practice meet its guarantees to a Guernsey based subsidiary that the Guernsey authorities should take action to press HMG to offer unequivocal indemnities to all its British savers in the way it has done with Icesave.
The article posted above appears to show HM Govt in Westminster resiling from a previously statedf position and my MP ( Crispin Blunt) is taking the matter up in ther House of Commons.
If the Member for Reigate and Banstead can do this what are the Guernsey authorites doing?
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For those of you hanging around these comment postings to simply act like petty referees.. Suggest you remember that many people are suffering and that this situation is far from funny.
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Steve the UK Ex-Pat
I don’t think people are “acting like petty referees”, but merely correcting some of your fundamental misunderstandings of the Guernsey situation.
If Guernsey was part of the UK then of course many of your comments would take on a different slant. But we are not part of the UK and yet you don’t seem to view that as remotely relevant. I would have thought that it was totally relevant in relation to any claim for compensation.
Its also not the case that people are not sympathetic to the situation faced by depositors facing losses. The only area of contention seems to be in relation to who was responsible and who should bail out those depositors.
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