Icesave Announces It is Freezing its Customer’s Accounts

October 7, 2008 – 10:08 am

The BBC Reports that Customers of the Icesave internet bank have been warned they will probably have to claim compensation for money held in their savings accounts. Hopefully this is not a signal of things to come for more banks.

The authorities in the UK are preparing for the bank’s parent in Iceland, Landsbanki, to be declared insolvent.

The Icelandic government took control of the country’s second biggest bank on Tuesday to stop it collapsing.

Claims from Icesave’s UK customers will be handled by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Restructuring work

Under the depositor protection arrangements in Iceland and the UK, the Icelandic authorities will be liable for the first 20,887 euros (£16,300) of compensation.

We are gearing up to be ready to do whatever we can in order to get compensation back to UK savers as quickly as possible FSCS spokesman

The UK’s FCSC will pay out the rest of the claims, up to the newly introduced ceiling of £50,000 per person.

“If, as expected, the Icelandic authorities put the firm into insolvency proceedings this would trigger a default under the FSCS,” said the Financial Services Authority.

“In this case, savers with Icesave could make a claim to get their money back,” it said.

Landsbanki later issued a statement saying it had gone into receivership, not liquidation, and that the Icelandic Financial Services Authority had appointed a receivership committee.

“Work has already begun on the restructuring of the operations of Landsbanki,” it said.

A spokesman for the FSCS said that if Icesave were declared insolvent, UK customers would not have to make two separate claims and that it would probably handle all UK claims on one form.

“We are working with the Icelandic authorities to confirm the procedure,” a spokesman said.

“We are gearing up to be ready to do whatever we can in order to get compensation back to UK savers as quickly as possible,” he added.

However during the morning the FSCS help-line went collapsed.

“We are doing everything we can to sort that out as quickly as we can,” said a spokeswoman.

“We are trying to get an alternative number installed.”

Insolvent

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it was expecting Icesave’s parent bank to be declared insolvent soon, following its takeover by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA).

I haven’t slept for a couple of days. This was money put away for retirement Icesave customer Mike Davis

Icesave has 350,000 savers in the UK and Netherlands, with about £4.5bn of deposits.

It is not currently allowing customers to take money out of their accounts or to put in deposits.

This dismayed customer Mike Davis, 62, who has £75,000 in retirement savings locked up in an Icesave account until 25 October.

His daughter also has savings there and his partner, Pam Henson, 67, has £23,000 with the same bank.

The couple are getting married on 1 November, and Mr Davis, who lives in Gloucestershire, said he was “shaking with worry” when he heard about problems with Icesave.

“This cannot have come at a worse time. It is a pretty devastating blow,” said Mr Davis, a landscape architect.

“I haven’t slept for a couple of days. This was money put away for retirement.”

He was expecting a long process of trying to recover savings and called for governments to guarantee 100% of savings.

Emergency

Landsbanki is the second Icelandic bank to be taken over to prevent a collapse of the country’s banking system.

What we are doing here is saving a banking system Geir Haarde, Iceland’s prime minister

In an announcement on state radio, the commerce and banking minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson said the board of directors of Landsbanki had been dismissed and the bank put into receivership.

He said the state takeover was made “in co-operation” with Landsbanki and the bank would stay open and operate as normal.

Glitnir, the country’s third-largest bank, was nationalised last week to stop it being driven into bankruptcy by the international financial crisis.

In a parallel move, Iceland’s largest bank Kaupthing has been given a loan of 500m euros from the country’s central bank.

“The central bank of Iceland has provided Kaupthing with a 500m euro loan to facilitate operations, and Kaupthing is committed to working with the government to ensure regular workings of the Icelandic financial system,” the bank said in a statement.

Meanwhile the Icelandic government has asked Russia to give it a loan of 4bn euros lasting for three to four years, to strengthen its foreign exchange reserves.

“The Russian Ambassador to Iceland, Victor I Tatarintsev, informed the chairman of the board of governors of the central bank of Iceland this morning that Russia would grant the central bank a loan in the amount of 4bn euros,” said the bank in a statement.

At first the Russian ministry of finance denied that any decision on giving a loan to Iceland had been made.

Later the Russian finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, said: “We have a request from the Icelandic government to provide a loan. We view it positively. The result will be announced after negotiations.”

Continued operations

On Monday the Icelandic government passed emergency legislation to try to rescue the country’s banking system and avoid what Prime Minister Geir Haarde described as “national bankruptcy”.

This included an unlimited guarantee for all bank customers’ savings accounts.

“What we are doing here is saving a banking system - saving the domestic banking system - and making sure that it can function properly,” he said after the decision to rescue Landsbanki.

“And I think, also, through our declaration on domestic deposits in these banks and saving institutions, we have been able to avoid a run on the banks here, and therefore prevent it,” he added.

The website of Icesave tells customers that: “We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly,” it adds.

A spokeswoman for the bank said the website was not operating “due to technical difficulties”, but did not offer any further reason for it being down.

Explaining its action in taking over Landsbanki, the IFSA said: “Based on new legislation, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA) proceeds to take control of Landsbanki to ensure continued commercial bank operations in Iceland.

“Domestic deposits are fully guaranteed, as declared by the government.

“Landsbanki’s domestic branches, call centres, cash machines and internet operations will be open for business as usual,” it added.

———–Comment’s from Affected People:

“I first found out about the problems at Icesave when I switched on BBC News this morning.

“I have since then logged on and seen the message on the website and I’ve not been able to withdraw any money”

Martin Scully has around £2,000 in a savings account which he uses to pay his tax bill at the end of the year.

“If I don’t get my money back by the time I have to pay my bill, I will struggle to find the money to cover it.”

Mr Scully said he had not received any communication from the bank and that he has already cancelled his direct debit.

“I want to close the account down and move the money from it to a UK-based bank.”

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“This is looking bleaker by the day. With rumours that Iceland is on the brink of bankruptcy, many UK depositors - myself included - face losing vast sums of money.

“Governments have encouraged people to save rather than borrow, but even this seems an unsafe option now.

“The end result can only be shattered confidence in the financial markets with future borrowing being on strict terms - perhaps £2,000 credit card limits secured on your home? - and a return to the habits of the 1930s/40s with people saving cash in biscuit tins in the airing cupboard.

“Governments need to stop ‘talking’ and start ‘doing’ to avert a complete meltdown.”

“I have the bulk of my family’s savings with Icesave, having moved from ING .

“I have £50,000 in a fixed-rate, one year deal which I can’t touch till January, so everything in my easy access account is vulnerable.

“The bulk of this is required to pay large bills for work on my house over the next month or two.

“I withdrew £37k on Friday at 4 pm and will require large sums in instalments over the next few weeks.

“I made a conscious decision to leave my money with Icesave and not add to the panic, but I will lose out whatever the eventual security of my deposits if I can’t withdraw money for legitimate reasons to pay bills.

“I find that though the first money has left my Icesave account, it hasn’t turned up in my bank account, which incidentally leaves me perilously close to being overdrawn.

“I can understand Icesave and/or the Icelandic government wanting to stop withdrawals because of panic, but it leaves someone like myself in a lose/lose situation. What happens if I can’t pay my builder?

“I find it frustrating that Icesave is in this position when it hasn’t lent recklessly like Northern Rock, hasn’t betrayed its customers, but I guess we did know in terms of the size of the Icelandic economy that Icesave and Kaupthing were punching above their weight.”