‘Landsbanki – FSA let island down’
Friday 7th August 2009, 12:30PM BST.
NEW Guernsey Financial Services Commission director-general Nik van Leuven will be meeting his UK counterpart in the autumn.
He said the aim of getting together with Financial Services Authority chief executive Hector Sants was to develop a better relationship with the UK regulator.
It was important to do so, according to Mr van Leuven, who took over at the GFSC from Peter Neville on 1 June after nearly seven years as HM Procureur.
‘The FSA let us down somewhat in the Landsbanki affair and we need to establish effective communication with them.
‘I think Landsbanki has probably created the environment where there is recognition of that.’
He believed that the relationship between regulators worldwide was necessarily changing and improving, with greater recognition that better and timely exchange of information was critical.
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Not only are the GFSC correct in saying that the FSA, “let us down somewhat”, but they also need to re-examine their own part in the Landsbanki affair and look carefully at their own inadequacies as far as their due diligence was concerned some six months prior to landsbanki Guernsey being put into administration. The time is nearing for a full independent enquiry with a far broader remit than that of Promontory, whose report was shallow to say the least.
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Two points Mr van Leuven.
1 It was the GFSC who let down those who invested in Landsbanki.
2 ‘The FSA let us down somewhat in the Landsbanki affair and we need to establish effective communication with them!
Problem is the thing happened with Northern Rock. Communication with the FSA was cited as a reason for not knowing what was going on.
How many staff do GFSC employ? Is it aa credible excuse to say the GFSC told the Commons Select Committee that the FSA didn’t tell us what was going on.
Pity Peter Neville didn’t have the wisdom to ask poster to this BB. He would have been given a good appraisal of Iceland and its banks, and the perils of upstreaming.
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The decision to heavily rely on the FSA was made by the GFSC, which is therefore fully responsible for the collapse of Landsbanki Guernsey.
It is fine that Mr Van Leuven wants to improve the communication with the FSA if they plan to rely on them, but again, it changes nothing to where the buck stops as far as depositors are concerned.
I hope that Mr Van Leuven can bring some fresh air and integrity at the GFSC and admit past mistakes by his predecessor.
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The majority of the Lansbanki Guernsey victims believe, as I do, that the enquiry into the GFSC was a whitewash. Independent it was not….
Now ask us to believe that the new improved GSFC is going to do a better job, ask us if we have faith in the new under-funded compensation scheme,ask us if Guernsey has done all it could and should to help the victims; and the answer is a resounding NO.
Not until Chief minister Trott stops playing silly politics (why all the posing and secrecy ?) and he and the States of Guernsey openly and with a will do something to help, we continue the story.
GUERNSEY (read that as the Channel Islands if you wish) IS NOT A SAFE PLACE TO HAVE YOUR MONEY.
Trott’s attempt to associate himself with the administrators latest payout (by his staged photo opportunity) has fallen on stoney ground.
Gary Blanchford is right, there must be calls for a truly independent in depth enquiry.
Now the new head of the GSFC is dodging questions which is fair indication there are more stones that need turning.
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Mr Baggott
The excellent article in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph shows just how badly the regulator failed depositors.
I always thought that regulators were required to look at things such as Report and Accounts, in order to spot the exact things the Telegraph article exposes.
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Stephen John
You’d think the the GFSC would be a step ahead, presumably knowing all the tricks involved for these practices to succeed.
The fact that we are a cog in a very undisciplined, greed motivated industry that prefers that no one watches and that it’s all done behind unopenable doors. The rich that serve themselves push hard to keep it this way. Not for them idle deposit accounts, so low in the pecking order, so what do they care about risk management?
The longer this spins out, the more it becomes clear that the accounting practices involved are just not good news for the running of society.
Finance may be global, people aren’t. Investments in other people’s risky debt should not be part of depositing. If you want liquidity, be honest about what you’re using it for.
And all the while this same industry determines our tax rate, regardless to how much we need to keep the Guernsey public in services they need.
And then you get the UTTERLY RIDICULOUS baby of an accountant wanting to sue Unite! How appallingly petty and vulgar.
Guernsey is losing humanity.
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