Martin Wolf in China, 2007

Martin Wolf, associate editor of British newspaper the Financial Times, says he thinks there’s nothing wrong with the fact that Icelanders are holding onto the Icelandic króna, the “smallest currency in the world”, and thinks that the króna has served Icelanders well. As of the time of writing, there are 182 krónur to the pound sterling, 158 to the euro and 114 to the US dollar.

Wolf presided over a meeting this evening with VÍB, the asset management arm of Íslandsbanki. He says he doesn’t see an advantage for Iceland in joining the EU, where he believes the country would have no influence and would have to relinquish control of important resources.

Addressing the audience he said, “I have to ask those of you who want this, have you not been following what is currently going on in the Union?”, which was received with a cry of laughter.

He went on to say that people shouldn’t forget that if they adopt another currency then they need to come to terms with the fact that the exchange rate will not always move in their favour, and that [Icelandic] society would have to possess enormous flexibility.

Amongst the others who were in attendance at the meeting were Vilhjálmur Egilsson, the CEO of Samtaka atvinnulífsins, Katrín Ólafsdóttir, a lecturer at the University of Reykjavík and Heiðar Már Guðjónsson, an investor.

Source: Morgunblaðið
Image: Wikipedia

Labels: Banking, Economy, UK

The Icelandic Embassy in London owes the City of London £1,320 (about 242,000 ISK) in congestion charge fees due to the fact that the embassy’s cars have entered the charging zone in Central London without paying the required £10 fee.

The Danish state broadcaster DR reported this story first, and it comes to your fine eyes via Morgunblaðið. The reason the story has been reported in Denmark is down to the fact that its own embassy is indebted to the city of London the tune of £264,560 (equivalent to 48.5 million ISK), for the very same reason.

London adopted a congestion charging scheme in 2003 in an attempt to reduce traffic levels and air pollution in the city centre. According to DR, the reason that the debts have racked up to such a figure is due to late payment fines which have accumulated over time.

DR reports that the British authorities say that the charge is not a tax but a fee which everyone must pay, including foreign ambassadors. Around two thirds of the embassies in London pay the charge regularly but the other third avoid insist on not paying.

The US Embassy has the largest debt to the City, which currently stands at £5,760,900 (just over one billion ISK). The US Embassy says it consider the charge a British tax which American ambassadors are exempt from paying — needless to say the British authorities are not exactly in agreement with this interoperation of the charge.

Other embassies that have gone into the red in London include the Finnish, German and Japanese representations, who owe £124,160, £3.6 million, £4.6 million respectively. Amongst the embassies who are willing to pay the charge are those of Norway and Sweden, who owe nothing in congestion charge fees to the City.

Labels: Foreign affairs, UK

The last few years have been particularly bad PR-wise for Iceland. The financial crisis, which made international headlines when the three major banks in the country collapsed at the end of 2008, has done much to tarnish Iceland’s credibility on the international scene. The Icesave dispute has increased tension on relations between the Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands. And then there’s a certain volcano.

Vísir reports that according to British newspaper The Guardian, these factors have contributed to Iceland ranking second from bottom on a list of favourite holiday destinations for Brits. Iceland was beaten to the bottom spot by one other country that’s struggling financially at the moment: Greece. Around 9% of respondents said that they wouldn’t want to travel to Iceland, whereas around 13% of those asked said they would be unwilling to go to Greece.

Brits said that due to the uncertainty following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and the industrial action surrounding the national carrier British Airways, whose staff frequently strike, Iceland came low on their list of top holiday destinations. Many of those surveyed said that they were planning on taking domestic holidays this year.

Source: visir.is via IcelandReview

Labels: Holidays, Surveys, UK

The University of Oxford, along with five British local authorities, is filing a lawsuit against the now defunct estates of Glitnir Bank and Bayerische Landesbank. A source for news website Vísir claims that up to fifty court summons against the bank could be on the way. The claims come to approximately 50 billion krónur (£205 million, €250 million, $306 million).

The lawsuit is being filed to try and reclaim the deposits that the respective parties had in accounts with Glitnir in the UK. The suit which has just been filed is considered to be a test case; if the suing party wins, then Glitnir can expect around fifty more similar cases, expect to come to 50 billion krónur (£171 million, €208 million, $255 million).

In addition to the University of Oxford, there are other universities who are demanding their money back from Glitnir. However, most claims are coming from local authorities. One local authority which has come off worse than others is Kent County Council, which also lost approximately £50 billion (€60 billion, $74 billion) in Icesave, a former subsidiary of Landsbanki.

Source: visir.is
Image: net_effekt

Labels: Glitnir, Kreppa, Landsbanki, UK