'IJsland op rand van faillissement'

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Iceland Risks Bankruptcy, Leader Says

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland -- Saying Iceland was at risk of "national bankruptcy," Prime Minister Geir Haarde prepared to give regulators authority to take over the nation's ailing banks as a worsening financial crisis all but cut off the island from the global financial system.

Credit lines to Iceland's banks closed down Monday, Mr. Haarde said in a televised address. Late Monday, Iceland's parliament was voting on an emergency law that could put the entire banking system under government control. It was expected to pass.

"There is a very real danger, fellow citizens, that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy," Mr. Haarde said. After the speech, Standard & Poors cut Iceland's foreign-currency sovereign-debt rating for a second time in a week.

"The banking system is not functioning," said Paul Biszko, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. "Everybody's cutting them off."

In theory, putting the banks under the government's wing and downsizing them should encourage others to lend to them. But that's far from assured, and Iceland is still likely to need capital to save its banking system, analysts say, given the economy's small size.

Mr. Haarde said Iceland was in touch with other countries in a hunt for outside sources of liquidity. Those efforts didn't yield any fruit. "It's turning out that it is every man for himself, every country for itself," he said.

In years of easy credit, Iceland's banks swelled. They lent at home and abroad. Their assets rose to 10 times the economic output of the nation of 300,000. Then the credit crunch sapped access to funding, leaving them vulnerable to fears their small country couldn't stand behind them if trouble struck.

The government's task is to ensure a less-ambitious banking system that is sufficient to "serve the Icelandic people and Icelandic industry," said Ólafur Ísleifsson, an economist at Reykjavík University.

Under the bill in Parliament, the government has wide-ranging authority to take over banks, seize control of management and direct asset sales. Mr. Haarde wouldn't say whether the government would use the full powers but said "it is conceivable that some [banks] will not be able to function without the authorities intervening."

One of Iceland's three big banks, Glitnir Bank hf, was effectively nationalized last week, when the government put in ¤600 million ($810 million) for a 75% stake. Ratings agencies quickly cut Iceland's sovereign-debt ratings, and the cost of insuring the debt against default jumped.

Some analysts believed nationalization of the remaining big banks is now likely. A spokesman for Kaupthing Bank hf, Iceland's biggest, said Kaupthing was getting support from Iceland's central bank but "will not be nationalized." A spokesman for a third large bank, Landsbanki Íslands hf, declined to comment.

If banks dump their foreign assets, that should also boost the wilting Icelandic krona. The currency is off more than 40% against the euro this year, an example of how badly the banking crisis is bleeding into the broader economy. The devalued currency has set the stage for further inflation -- the rate stood recently at 14% -- on the import-dependent island.

The increases in cost of living and in household-debt servicing, as many car and home loans are linked to inflation, have crimped lifestyles in a country that had become accustomed to credit-fed consumption.

Meantime, the International Monetary Fund sent a fact-finding team to Iceland, an IMF spokesman said Monday.

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Moeder Icesave in problemen

Het vertrouwen in IJslandse banken smelt als sneeuw voor de zon. De IJslandse Inspectie van Financiën heeft gistermiddag dan ook de handel in bankaandelen van zes IJslandse banken stilgelegd, omdat de koersen keihard onderuit gingen. Dit meldden verschillende Scandinavische media.

In Nederland is de IJslandse bank Landsbanki actief via dochter Icesave, Kaupthing maakte in het recente verleden nog aanstalten Landsbanki te volgen naar ons land. Icesave is al maandenlang dé prijsstunter op de Nederlandse spaarmarkt met een rente van 5,25% op een spaarrekening zonder beperkende voorwaarden.

Het vertrouwen in de IJslandse banken, toch al niet groot, kelderde gisterochtend nadat de IJslandse regering niet met een extra reddingspakket wilde komen om de economie te stutten. Na de beslissing pasten kredietbeoordelaars meteen de waarde van de IJslandse banken naar beneden bij. Vorige week nationaliseerde IJsland al Glitnir, de derde bank van het land.

Het IJslandse garantiestelsel biedt Europese spaarders bescherming tot minimaal ¤20.887 van het totale bedrag op de spaarrekening. Naast deze bescherming door het IJslandse garantiestelsel garandeert het Nederlands depositogarantiestelsel het bedrag tussen de ¤20.887 en ¤40.000 voor 90 procent.
Uit IJsland zelf duiken inmiddels de eerste berichten op over halflege supermarkten, die geen geld hebben voor verdere bevoorrading vanuit het buitenland, nu de IJslandse munt, de kroon, in een ongeremde val is geraakt en inwoners van het eiland aan het hamsteren slaan.

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Op dinsdag 7 oktober 2008 08:31 schreef Drugshond het volgende:
IceSave.... die waren 3 of 4 mnd geleden in het nieuws op BNR.
Was geloof ik de eerste internet spaarbank (prijsstunter) die boven de 5 % ging zitten.

Gaat niet goed daaro.

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Op dinsdag 7 oktober 2008 10:29 schreef vaarsuvius het volgende:
Tijd om naar ijsland op Vakantie te gaan. Het eiland is erg mooi.

(edit) dit was mijn eerste gedachte bij de OP. maar anderen hebben het ook al bedacht