xcel
10-09-2008, 09:54 AM
Those measures proved not to be enough in a rapidly deteriorating situation. (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93MUPAG0.htm)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Kaupthing_Bank.jpgJane Wardell – Business Week – Oct. 9, 2008
Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank
Glad not to be an Icelander these days. -- Ed.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the country's largest bank -- the third to be placed under its protective umbrella -- on Thursday as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening to engulf the entire country.
The Nordic nation's government also used sweeping new emergency powers to create a new bank that will take over the bulk of the domestic operations of another one of its collapsed banks.
The country is struggling to get a grip on the collapse of its top-heavy banking system; a situation that Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde has warned is putting Iceland at risk of "national bankruptcy."
The crisis is also causing ripples throughout Europe, where tens of thousands of people have accounts with subsidiaries of the Icelandic banks.
The OMX Nordic Exchange Iceland said Thursday that equity trading would remain halted until Monday because of "unusual market conditions."
The government's decision to take control of Kaupthing, the country's leading bank that has assets and debts across the continent, means that the Financial Services Authority now has control of all three of the country's major banks. The other two, Landsbanki and Glitnir, are in receivership.
The authority said the action was necessary to ensure the "continued orderly operation of domestic banking and the safety of domestic deposits."
It also used emergency powers, rushed in by parliament earlier this week, to hive off most of the domestic assets of Landsbanki into a separate entity to be called "New Landsbanki" that is fully owned by the government… http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93MUPAG0.htm
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Kaupthing_Bank.jpgJane Wardell – Business Week – Oct. 9, 2008
Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank
Glad not to be an Icelander these days. -- Ed.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the country's largest bank -- the third to be placed under its protective umbrella -- on Thursday as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening to engulf the entire country.
The Nordic nation's government also used sweeping new emergency powers to create a new bank that will take over the bulk of the domestic operations of another one of its collapsed banks.
The country is struggling to get a grip on the collapse of its top-heavy banking system; a situation that Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde has warned is putting Iceland at risk of "national bankruptcy."
The crisis is also causing ripples throughout Europe, where tens of thousands of people have accounts with subsidiaries of the Icelandic banks.
The OMX Nordic Exchange Iceland said Thursday that equity trading would remain halted until Monday because of "unusual market conditions."
The government's decision to take control of Kaupthing, the country's leading bank that has assets and debts across the continent, means that the Financial Services Authority now has control of all three of the country's major banks. The other two, Landsbanki and Glitnir, are in receivership.
The authority said the action was necessary to ensure the "continued orderly operation of domestic banking and the safety of domestic deposits."
It also used emergency powers, rushed in by parliament earlier this week, to hive off most of the domestic assets of Landsbanki into a separate entity to be called "New Landsbanki" that is fully owned by the government… http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93MUPAG0.htm