Iceland falls hard government takes control

It is now Iceland’s turn to be swept up in the financial turmoil that’s been hitting everywhere in the world, the Icelandic government issued a statement saying it has taken control of Landsbanki the lead Icelandic financial institution, Icesave the internet bank has also been affected as it is part of Landsbanki banking brand stopping its savers from withdrawing their cash.

The Icelandic government sought to reassure domestic savers their money was safe after they nationalized Landsbanki, they announced that the depositors money was safe and fully guaranteed by the government, adding call centre’s, cash machines and domestic branches as well as internet operations would be “open for business as usual”. But bad news for UK savers of icebank, the guarantee does not extend to UK savers.

But as UK savers logged onto the ICesaves website they were greeted with a message telling them that the group were not currently processing any withdrawals or deposits requests on its internet account.

Concerns have grown over the weeks as to the health of the Icelandic banks, and the announcement on Monday from Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde warning the island that there is a real possibility” of “national bankruptcy” as the economy could get sucked into the “global banking swell”.

Although there have been no hard figures out regarding how many UK savers have money with Icesave, although the general census is about 300,000.

Source: ukpressgoogle