• Iceland agrees new Icesave deal
  
• Iceland agrees Icesave deal terms
  
• Arrest of Landsbanki executives
  

Magda Hassan Wrote:http://mirror.wikileaks.info/leak/kaupthing-claims.pdf
This document contains a list of 28167 claims, totally 40 billion euro, lodged against the failed Icelandic bank
Kaupthing Bank hf. The document is important because it reveals billions in cash, bonds and other property held
with Kaupthing by wealthy investors and asset hiders from around the world, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche
Bank, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanly, Exista, Barclays, Commerzbank AG and a vast number of others.

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country's economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.
Since the end of 2008, the island's banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.


A cyclist passes an Icelandic national flag hanging in a popular shopping street in Reykjavik, Iceland. Photographer: Paul Taggart/Bloomberg



"You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief," said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. "Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that."
The island's steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland's economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don't want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.
The island's households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.

Crisis Lessons

"The lesson to be learned from Iceland's crisis is that if other countries think it's necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here," said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. "It's the broadest agreement that's been undertaken."
Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.
Iceland's $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates.
Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island's "unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded."

People Vs Markets

Iceland's approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island's banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.
Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.
"There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven't lost a penny with the measures that they've undertaken," she said.

Fresh Demands

According to Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for Landsbankinn hf, the amount written off by the banks is probably larger than the 196.4 billion kronur ($1.6 billion) that the Financial Services Association estimates, since that figure only includes debt relief required by the courts or the government.
"There are still a lot of people facing difficulties; at the same time there are a lot of people doing fine," Kristjansson said. "It's nearly impossible to say when enough is enough; alongside every measure that is taken, there are fresh demands for further action."
As a precursor to the global Occupy Wall Street movement and austerity protests acrossEurope, Icelanders took to the streets after the economic collapse in 2008. Protests escalated in early 2009, forcing police to use teargas to disperse crowds throwing rocks at parliament and the offices of then Prime Minister Geir Haarde. Parliament is still deciding whether to press ahead with an indictment that was brought against him in September 2009 for his role in the crisis.
A new coalition, led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, was voted into office in early 2009. The authorities are now investigating most of the main protagonists of the banking meltdown.

Legal Aftermath

Iceland's special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.
Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland's second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.
That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.
The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don't face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions.
According to Christensen at Danske Bank, "the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/icelandic-anger-brings-record-debt-relief-in-best-crisis-recovery-story.html

Geir Haarde Verdict: Guilty ... Sorta

Quote:he will not receive any sentence - whether prison time or a fine - for the charge he has been convicted of. Furthermore, the Icelandic government will have to pay for his legal expenses, which total 24 million ISK.

Iceland Says Yes To New Constitution

Quote:Iceland's centre-right opposition has declared victory in parliamentary elections, as voters punished the incumbent leftist government for harsh austerity measures during its four years at the helm.They will now form a coalition government after a count of 45 per cent of votes suggested the rightwing Independence Party would get 21 seats in parliament, with the centrist-agrarian Progressive Party set to double its seats to 18.
It marks a return to power for the two parties, which both want to end the Atlantic island nation's European Union accession talks.
The Independence Party's leader Bjarni Benediktsson told supporters he was ready to negotiate a coalition that would lead the country.
"[We are] called to duty again. The situation now calls for change," Mr Benediktsson said.
The two parties have staged a remarkable comeback since they were ousted in a 2009 election after presiding over the worst financial crisis to ever hit the small country.
Before the crisis the mortgages offered by Icelandic banks were linked to inflation, resulting in spiralling borrowing costs for homeowners when the krona collapsed against other currencies.
After four years of tax hikes and austerity designed to meet international lenders' demands, the Independence Party has offered debt-laden voters tax credits.
The Progressive Party, a historic coalition partner to the Independence Party, has vowed to go even further by asking banks to write off some of the debt.
"We will change Iceland for the better very fast in the coming months and years," said the party's leader, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.
The biggest party traditionally picks the prime minister and polls in the final weeks of campaigning had put the two parties neck-and-neck.
The incumbent social democratic Alliance Party was looking at a drop in parliamentary seats from 19 to 10. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-28/iceland-centre-right-opposition-claims-election-win/4655888

Quote:

Pirate Party wins 3 seats in Icelandic parliament for its best result worldwide

One of the new Pirates, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, has a long history with WikiLeaks.

by Cyrus Farivar - Apr 29 2013, 3:20am AUSEST

On Saturday, Iceland held national parliamentary elections and the newly-formed Pirate Party of Iceland won 5.1 percent of the vote. This earned the party three seats in parliament, making the new Píratar the most successful Pirate Party in any national legislative body around the globe.
Iceland's unicameral parliament, known in Icelandic as the Alþing ("All-thing"), has just 63 members to represent the country's 320,000 people.
By comparison, the Czech Republic has one Pirate Party parliamentarian, Germany has 45 state-level Pirate lawmakers (plus, recent party struggles), and Sweden has two representatives of its Pirate Party in the European Parliament. As is the case anywhere Pirates hold elective office, the group still represents a tiny minority in Icelandmost of the seats in the Alþing will go to the center-right Independence Party. In the United States, the Pirate Party has had very limited success and is extremely unlikely to get elected to either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
The three new Icelandic lawmakers include Jón Þór Ólafsson, a business administration student at the University of Iceland; Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, a computer programmer; and Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a well-known WikiLeaks volunteer and former member of parliament from 2009 to 2013.
Birgitta is also one of three activists involved in a WikiLeaks investigation currently underway in the United States. In November 2011, a district court judge found that prosecutors could compel Twitter to give up specific information on the three accounts, including IP addresses, direct messages, and other data. In January 2013, a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled (PDF) that Birgitta and the two others have no right to find out which other companies the government sought information from besides Twitter.
The trio, along with other members of Iceland's digerati (including Smári McCarthy, who also is one of the organizers of the International Modern Media Initiative), founded the party just five months ago. The Pirate Party at large was founded in Sweden in 2006, focusing on a digital agenda including items such as IP law reform and Internet policies

"We are really very grateful for the [electorate's] trust," Birgitta told the state broadcaster, RÚV http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/pirate-party-wins-3-seats-in-icelandic-parliament-for-its-best-result-worldwide/

The Secret Sauce Of Iceland's Success Story: Debt Liquidation?