GRan Bretaña va a aplicar leyes antiterroristas a Islandia

asthar escribió:terminaremos viendo los cafés a 120€ , al tiempo.

A delegation of Treasury officials will head to Iceland today in an attempt to resolve the diplomatic stand-off over its banking crisis.

As Gordon Brown last night branded the country's failure to guarantee British savings in its defunct banks "totally unacceptable and illegal", it emerged that more than 100 local councils, police authorities and fire services have up to £1bn lost in its bankrupted system.

Charities, including children's hospices, warned they were at risk of losing £25m.

Treasury officials en route to Iceland hope to meet officials to discuss the crisis and find a solution that minimises the impact on UK individuals and councils with money in its banks.

In unusually aggressive terms last night, the prime minister said he was willing to use anti-terrorism legislation to freeze the assets of other Icelandic companies operating in Britain in an effort to recoup the lost money. The extent of the potential difficulties for councils and other bodies began to emerge yesterday as more and more said they had invested money in Iceland's high-yielding savers' accounts.

By yesterday evening, the Local Government Association (LGA) had accumulated reports showing that 108 councils in England, Scotland and Wales had deposited £798.95m in Icelandic banks.

With no sign of Iceland being able to repay the money and councils lobbying ministers for reassurance that the cash would be recovered, Britain went on the offensive. "What happened in Iceland is completely unacceptable," said Brown. "I've spoken to the Icelandic prime minister, I have told him this is effectively an illegal action that they have taken. We are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK where we can. We will take further action against the Icelandic authorities where necessary to recover the money.

"The responsibility for this lies fairly and squarely with the Icelandic authorities, and they cannot simply default. The Icelandic authorities are responsible for this, and we are demanding the money is paid back to the local authorities, and we are prepared to consider all forms of action, including, as we did, attempting to freeze assets."

Geir Haarde, Iceland's prime minister, said he was surprised by Brown's remarks, and urged him to consider resolving the issue in the courts. The Treasury said it had no imminent plan for a wider move against Icelandic companies operating in the UK saying the only action taken so far was the freezing of the Landsbanki's estimated £7bn of UK assets.

The British government invoked the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 to freeze the British assets of Landsbanki, something for which Brown refused to apologise, saying he had a responsibility to recover the assets in the most effective way possible.

Referring to the move, Haarde said: "I told the chancellor that we consider this to be a completely unfriendly act."

Asked if the financial crisis engulfing Iceland had become a diplomatic crisis with Britain, Haarde added: "I thought so for a few minutes this morning when I realised that a terrorist law was being applied against us. That was not very pleasant. I'm afraid not many governments would have taken that very kindly, to be put into that category."

Haarde said Iceland had not decided on whether to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and negotiations to secure a €4bn (£3.2bn) loan from Russia would not begin until Tuesday.

Under Iceland's financial regulations, the government is supposed to pay up to £16,000 compensation per frozen account at a total cost of £2.2bn.

Britain is angry since it has received no assurances from the Icelandic government that it would meet this commitment. It is estimated that British investors have a total of £8bn deposited in the Icelandic banks, including £4.6bn in the Icesaver internet bank.

In an effort to work out the scale of the potential exposure of public bodies to the Icelandic banking collapse, leaders of local councils met with John Healey, the local government minister, yesterday.

At the meeting in London the councils tried to persuade the government to guarantee their savings, in the same way that ministers had guaranteed the savings for individual investors in Landsbanki. But Healey refused to give any such commitment after the meeting. Instead he said the government "will not leave councils under pressure on their own". He conceded that the councils had not acted recklessly, and had been following Whitehall advice sent out in 2004 to spread their investments across a wide range of banks.

Local councils pointed out that they had been given legal advice that the Icelandic banks had three star credit ratings, and there was no way of predicting this collapse was imminent. "The local councils are well informed investors. This is not money that is lost, it may be money that is at risk," a statement said.

After the meeting, the LGA said "a small number" of authorities faced specific short-term problems.

In a joint statement, the LGA and the government said: "For those local authorities who are facing severe short-term difficulties government and the LGA will agree an appropriate set of ways to assist. We will judge what's appropriate on a case by case basis."

However, Ed Welsh, of the LGA, told GMTV today that the money was in the foreign banks to earn interest rather than to be used for current expenditure so the crisis was unlikely to cause immediate problems.

"We are hopeful this will not have an impact on frontline services," he said. "In the long term, there may be an issue but it means deferring payment or tightening our belts."

Authorities with big investments include Kent county council with £50m; Nottingham city council, £42m; Norfolk county council, £32.5m; Dorset county council, and Hertfordshire county council, both £28m.

Fifteen police forces also have investments in Iceland, as does Transport for London (TfL) which revealed it had a £40m deposit with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, a UK subsidiary of the bankrupt Kaupthing bank.

TfL, which runs the London bus and tube services, said it did not know if it would get the money back. But a spokesman said TfL's £7bn budget was big enough to absorb the loss.

Stephen Bubb, the chief executive of Acevo, the representative body for charity chief executives, urged the chancellor to guarantee the bank deposits of UK charities. He said the collapse of Icelandic banks had hit charities hard with some losing up to one fifth of their reserves, in sums ranging up to £12m. The total losses reported to Acevo added up to more than £25m.

It also emerged yesterday that the 300,000 UK personal savers who had accounts with Icesave would be lucky to get their money back by Christmas.

"What happened in Iceland is completely unacceptable," said Brown. "I've spoken to the Icelandic prime minister, I have told him this is effectively an illegal action that they have taken. We are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK where we can. We will take further action against the Icelandic authorities where necessary to recover the money."

asthar escribió:el corralito ya no es cosa del 3er mundo, eh?

terminaremos viendo los cafés a 120€ , al tiempo.

asthar escribió:el corralito ya no es cosa del 3er mundo, eh?

terminaremos viendo los cafés a 120€ , al tiempo.

LONDRES.- El efecto mariposa que convirtió a un conjunto no demasiado elevado de hipotecas estadounidenses de mala calidad en el mayor desestabilizador de la economía mundial en 80 años puede tener su reflejo europeo en Islandia. La quiebra del sistema financiero de este ignoto país de apenas 300.000 habitantes amenaza con resquebrajar aún más al del Reino Unido, cuyos bancos, empresas y hasta ayuntamientos han acudido en los últimos años a la volcánica isla tras sus jugosos tipos de interés de más del 14%.

Si el premier Gordon Brown, que acaba de nacionalizar buena parte de su banca, no ataja la infección, ésta puede afectar a todo el sistema financiero europeo.

La amenaza se antoja exagerada pero es real. Básicamente por las conexiones entre las instituciones financieras de los dos países, fluidas, promiscuas y fructíferas durante la última década. Los problemas llegan ahora que la economía de la pequeña isla volcánica se tambalea por la tormenta bursátil y el Gobierno de Reykjavik no es capaz de capearla.

El primer ministro islandés, Geir Haarde, anunció este jueves dos medidas urgentes. La primera, la suspensión de la actividad de las Bolsas hasta el próximo lunes para frenar la especulación. La segunda, la tercera nacionalización de una entidad financiera en menos de una semana. Esta vez le tocó el turno al Kaupthing, el banco más grande de la isla. Antes habían pasado a manos del Estado el Landsbanki y el Glitnir.

El colapso bancario islandés responde a dos grandes causas: la regulación deficiente de su banco central y el tamaño insuficiente de sus entidades. En relación con la primera, el gran error del regulador fue concentrar sus esfuerzos en la lucha contra la inflación. ¿Por qué? Porque creó una atmósfera propicia para los especuladores, que llevaban su dinero a Islandia atraídos por los altísimos tipos de interés y una moneda -el krona- completamente maleable. Cuanto más altos eran los tipos, más dinero foráneo llegaba. Y cuanto más dinero foráneo llegaba, más se disparaban el crecimiento y la inflación. Y cuando más se disparaba la inflación, más subían los tipos. Así se fue alimentando una burbuja que ahora ha pinchado.

La segunda causa de la debacle es el tamaño desmesurado de los bancos de la isla, que manejan un volumen de negocio que multiplica por 10 el PIB islandés. La mayoría son instituciones creadas sobre fundamentos sólidos y bien gestionadas. Su vulnerabilidad no nace de su insolvencia sino de sus problemas de liquidez, que un Estado minúsculo como Islandia no puede remediar.

Hasta aquí el origen de la crisis de Islandia. Pero, ¿cuáles son sus ramificaciones en el Reino Unido? Dos. La primera tiene que ver con la actividad de los bancos islandeses en suelo británico. Muchos ciudadanos dejaron en ellos sus ahorros atraídos por sus altos tipos de interés. Lo hicieron también decenas de municipios y autoridades locales, que querían maximizar el dinero de las contribuciones. Unos y otros se ven atrapados ahora en el laberinto. A los primeros el Gobierno británico les ha garantizado sus ahorros con varios apaños: a los clientes de Kaupthing, adjudicándole a ING el negocio del banco; a los de Landsbanki, congelando sus activos de la mano de la legislación antiterrorista.

Peor lo tienen las autoridades locales, que invirtieron su dinero en las entidades islandesas por consejo del Tesoro y a las que ahora el Tesoro se resiste a ayudar. Según la oposición conservadora, el montante podría ascender a 1.300 millones de euros, todos dinero de los contribuyentes.

La otra ramificación de la crisis de Islandia en el Reino Unido es la que conduce a la economía real. En los últimos años, muchos empresarios británicos han recurrido a los bancos islandeses en busca de financiación. Es una lista larga que va del chef Gordon Ramsay al magnate inmobiliario Robert Tchenguiz pasando por supermercados como Sainsbury o tiendas de ropa como Karen Millen o House of Fraser. Como anécdota, cabe decir que entre las víctimas está un equipo de fútbol -el West Ham-, cuyo dueño es islandés Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson.

Está por ver si todos aguantan el tirón de la crisis en un momento en el que conseguir dinero se antoja cada vez más complicado. Si no lo hacen y la economía británica se contagia, Brown y su ministro Darling -que parecían haber evitado el abismo con su plan de rescate- podrían volver a coquetear con el precipicio.

Por el momento, el premier ha hecho dos cosas. En primer lugar llamó al presidente español, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, para explicarle los pormenores de su plan de rescate bancario. En segundo, emitió una furibunda bronca a los banqueros a través de la televisión, a quienes exigió que asuman sus responsabilidades por los problemas del sistema.

KuKaMaN escribió:esto es increible... a donde coño vamos a parar?