Iceland referendum rejects bank repayment deal

[addy]

Voters in Iceland have rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens' five billion US dollars (£3 billion) worth of deposits in a failed online bank Icesave. The matter will now go through the European Free Trade Association court.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress...496406477A

I appreciate why the Icelanders voted the way they did, though that's not gonna help them. It's pretty optimistic of them to think this won't affect their EU bid.

[billy]

let's face it, if you had a credit card debt or any other kind of debt and you were asked would you prefer not to pay it, of course you'd say no.
the same goes for a national debt or in this case the bank of iceland debt. they owe the money, they should pay up. if they don't they should face sanctions such as no international banking. irrespective of what they'd rather do or not do

[srijantje]

they can try to get the money back from the u.s.they were just middlemen taking with one hand and passing it on,disgusting
and it's happening all over again

[billy]

yep it is a lot. and it should be paid back. if iceland has allowed their bankers to escape tough.
banks still operate in iceland, until monies stolen are paid back or an affirmation given that they will be they should be ostracised by the international banking communities. all Icelandic assets should be frozen (if you excuse the pun) the actual facts aren't as clear cut as you project them to be vf. the banks basically did a sting operation and as such the sovereign state is and should be accountable.

[srijantje]

with the money they bought whatever it's caled from the american banks,no?they were in connivance with them

and where are those bankers now then?

[billy]

it was basically a scam and now they don't want to pay. the gov helped the bankers hide their identities because to not do so
would make the icelandic banks look like monopoly shops...which is basically what they were.

[srijantje]

so it comes down again to the bankers got away with it and the icelanders have to pay for it:as:

[thethingy]

Voters in Iceland have rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens' five billion US dollars (£3 billion) worth of deposits in a failed online bank Icesave. The matter will now go through the European Free Trade Association court.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress...496406477A

I appreciate why the Icelanders voted the way they did, though that's not gonna help them. It's pretty optimistic of them to think this won't affect their EU bid.

I dont think it will help there economy at all as there credit rating will take a hit and investors will think twice before entering in to any deals with them, it's a lot of cash for a small population to repay but it's the same lot of cash that we (UK people) had to find to give them so giving it back is only right, I doubt the UK will hold it against them in there EU application though as typically in matters like that the UK would just use the court systems.

[billy]

vf says it works out at 17000 per person.
the uk told the icelandic gov it could be paid back over 20 years. which worls out at 850$ a year. per head. whoch of course would or could come from the banking sectors profit. the truth is iceland thought they saw a way to scam two countries and the odss are it will backfire.

the fact they refuse to pay could make others veto their european application, after all who wants another country in that can't service it's debts. personally i'd put a 100 year moratorium on them being able to apply as a member state and make them able to use nothing but forign banks for international transactions.

[addy]

yeah, incurring international scorn would virtually be the same as being blacklisted.

I was under the impression that the Icelandic government wanted to pay back the debt, but in the referendum (which I guess they were obligated to hold) the citizens disagreed so the government is reluctantly forced to abide by that. Is that not the case?

[billy]

the icelandic gov held the referendum knowing what the outcome would obviously be in order to say;

it was the will of the people. think is they still have banks in iceland and they could have been made to take over the debt. there was a 20 year allowence and as such the icelandic banks could have paid back the cash without hitting the population for any of it. another thing they could have done was nationalise the banks if they refused to co operate. though it only has a small population it was obviously able to rip off 5 bil from investors from other countries. most if not all international banks have a broad based incomes outside their own countries. instead what the gov did was say

we have to make you the population pay the debt back what do you think about that. very clever piece of smoke and mirrors but a fraud non the less