From Bloomberg
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- On his second day as head of Iceland’s third-largest bank, Arni Tomasson faced a crisis: The firm he had been asked by regulators to run was out of cash.
It was Oct. 8, 2008, at the height of the global financial meltdown, and Iceland’s bank assets in the U.K. had been frozen, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its March issue. Customers flocked to branches of Tomasson’s Glitnir Banki hf to withdraw money, even though the government had guaranteed their deposits. By the end of the day, the vaults were empty, says Tomasson, recalling the drama two years later.
The only way Glitnir and other lenders could avoid a panic the next morning was to get more cash, which they were having trouble doing. A container of crisp kronur sat on the tarmac at Reykjavik’s airport awaiting payment, Tomasson says. The British company that printed the bills, De La Rue Plc, was demanding sterling, and the central bank couldn’t access its U.K. account.
“Everybody was panicked -- depositors, creditors, banks around the world,” Tomasson says. “The effort by all of us at the time was to make sure life could go on as normal.”
Tomasson, 55, got the cash he needed that night after the central bank managed to open an emergency line of credit with a European lender. Now, he’s sitting in an office in Reykjavik, handling about $24 billion of claims by creditors as life in Iceland’s capital returns to normal.
Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks, whose assets had ballooned to $209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.
Krona Devaluation
The crisis almost sank the country. The krona lost 58 percent of its value by the end of November 2008, inflation spiked to 19 percent in January 2009 and GDP contracted by 7 percent that year. Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde resigned after nationwide protests. With the economy projected to grow 3 percent this year, Iceland’s decision to let the banks fail is looking smart -- and may prove to be a model for others...
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Allied Irish Banks to pay €40m bonuses despite bailout
From The Guardian.
Stricken Allied Irish Banks is preparing to hand out €40m (£34m) of bonuses next week – despite being on the brink of receiving another emergency bailout from the Irish government....
Stricken Allied Irish Banks is preparing to hand out €40m (£34m) of bonuses next week – despite being on the brink of receiving another emergency bailout from the Irish government....
Labels:
allied irish banks,
banker bonuses,
emergency bailout,
ireland,
john foy
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
'Toxic Bank' Cement Truck Blocks Irish Parliament

From ABC News
Cement truck blocks gate of Irish parliament in protest at colossal bailout bill at Anglo bank
A cement truck plastered with anti-bank slogans blocked the entrance to the Irish parliament Wednesday as tensions mounted over the country's debt crisis and enormous bank bailouts.
At least one police guard narrowly escaped being hit as the truck drove up to Leinster House about 7:15 a.m., one lawmaker said. The truck stopped as it touched the entrance's ornate wrought-iron gates but caused no significant damage...
Labels:
bank protest,
banksters,
cement truck,
financial crisis,
ireland,
irish parliament
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Our Beloved Leaders...
Irish take a ride in the paddy wagon for a chance to growl at one of the beloved perpetrators of the corrupt War on Terror. Watch him smirk with his nice new book and pressed suit.
From Raw Story and BBC.
From Raw Story and BBC.
Labels:
book signing,
eason,
eggs,
ireland,
irish,
protest,
tony blair
Friday, May 14, 2010
Trilateral Commission Wants War With Iran
From Prison Planet.
Trilateral Commission member Mikhail Slobodovsici, a chief adviser to the Russian leadership, unwittingly provided a revealing insight into the plans of the global elite during the group’s recent meeting in Dublin Ireland, when he mistakenly told a We Are Change Ireland activist he thought was a fellow TC member that the globalists are planning a war with Iran.
According to Jim Tucker’s fascinating report on the story, Slobodovsici also let slip to We Are Change Ireland’s Alan Keenan that the Trilateralists and their BIlderberg counterparts are intent on exploiting the economic crisis to finalize plans for a world government, but that this agenda is being severely hampered by so-called “nationalists” who are becoming increasingly aware of the impact that global government will have on their freedom and standards of living.
“We are deciding the future of the world,” Slobodovsici told Keenan. “We need a world government,” he said, but, referring to Iran, said “we need to get rid of them.”
Trilateral Commission member Mikhail Slobodovsici, a chief adviser to the Russian leadership, unwittingly provided a revealing insight into the plans of the global elite during the group’s recent meeting in Dublin Ireland, when he mistakenly told a We Are Change Ireland activist he thought was a fellow TC member that the globalists are planning a war with Iran.
According to Jim Tucker’s fascinating report on the story, Slobodovsici also let slip to We Are Change Ireland’s Alan Keenan that the Trilateralists and their BIlderberg counterparts are intent on exploiting the economic crisis to finalize plans for a world government, but that this agenda is being severely hampered by so-called “nationalists” who are becoming increasingly aware of the impact that global government will have on their freedom and standards of living.
“We are deciding the future of the world,” Slobodovsici told Keenan. “We need a world government,” he said, but, referring to Iran, said “we need to get rid of them.”
Labels:
ireland,
rockefeller,
slobodovsici,
trilateral commission,
we are change
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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