Icelanders are obligated to pay the minimum deposit insurance of the savings accounts in Landsbanki’s Icesave branch in the UK and the Netherlands, according to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA), which presented its evaluation of the dispute today.
This conclusion is in accordance with the letter sent by the ESA to the Icelandic government in May 2010. Icelandic authorities replied to the letter last month and after the ESA reviewed Iceland’s argumentation it came to the same conclusion as last year, visir.is reports.
It says that Iceland must pay the minimum deposit insurance because Icelandic authorities differentiated between the depositors in Icelandic banks in Iceland and abroad when deciding what their right to repayment should be during the banking collapse in October 2008.
Such discrimination is at odds with European regulations and the EEA agreement, the ESA reasoned. The ESA’s evaluation also states that the Icelandic government has three months to react. If not, the dispute may be taken to the EFTA Court.
Click here to read more about the Icesave dispute.
