★ Icelanders say No to payout for foreign savers
Morning Star
Icelanders say No to payout for foreign savers
Sunday 03 January 2010
A quarter of Iceland's population have signed a petition calling on the
government to refuse to pay back cash lost by foreigners in last year's
financial crash.
More than 56,000 people, 23 per cent of all registered voters in the
Atlantic island nation, urged President Olaf Ragnar Grimsson to refuse
to sign a Bill passed by parliament that would force the government to
hand over £3.4 billion to British and Dutch customers of a failed
internet bank.
The proposed compensation for investors amounts to over 2 million
Icelandic kroner (£9,900) for each citizen on the island, but petition
organiser Magnus Arni Skulason stressed that the money was enough to
fund Iceland's entire national health service for at least six months.
"Icelandic taxpayers should not have to pay for the bankers' mistakes,"
he declared, pointing out that polls showed that 70 per cent of
Icelanders were against the deal.