Reykjavík District Court ruled yesterday that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi will be granted access to seven documents at Kaupthing Bank and its successor, Arion Bank, to investigate what happened to its USD 50 million (EUR 35 million) loan to Kaupthing 39 minutes before it was taken over by a resolution committee in October 2008.
Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
The Japanese bank originally requested access to 21 documents at Kaupthing and Arion Bank, but the banks refused on the basis of banking secrecy, visir.is reports.
On September 22, 2008, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Kaupthing made a currency contract involving that the Japanese bank would deposit USD 50 million to the account of JP Morgan in New York. Kaupthing was supposed to deposit the same amount in yens to an account at the same bank.
Tokyo-Mitsubishi lived up to its part of the agreement and deposited the amount 39 minutes before Kaupthing collapsed. The USD 50 million were deposited to the account of the Central Bank of Iceland in New York but Kaupthing never deposited the yens to JP Morgan.
Now Tokyo-Mitsubishi is keen on finding out what happened to the money and is preparing to file a lawsuit against Kaupthing for not honoring the currency contract.
The documents, to which the Japanese bank has now been granted access, will help with the preparations as they include information on where the remainder of the loan is located.
