The amount is destined to reimburse the governments of The United Kingdom and the Netherlands, two states which were negatively impacted by the collapse in October 2008 of Iceland’s online bank Icesave, part of the Landsbanki group. The majority of the affected investors were based in Britain, where over 300,000 savers saw their accounts frozen when Landsbanki collapsed. The banking debt is set to be repaid over a 14-year interval and amounts to a total of EUR 12,500 per Icelandic citizen.
The petition was signed by around 61,000 Icelandic citizens (about a quarter of the country’s electorate) and demands that the president call a referendum on the matter. On the other hand, Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is under pressure to sign the bill – which has already been approved by the country’s Parliament - into law in order to advance Iceland’s bid to join the European Union.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now