Local council in England recoups more losses from Iceland banking collapse

The local council in Wiltshire, England, has been compensated for almost half of its losses suffered in the 2008 banking crash in Iceland.

The council had invested some GBP 3 million (EUR 3.7 million) into Landsbanki, one of the North Atlantic nation’s hardest hit financial institutions. But this week the bank returned some GBP 180,000 (EUR 223,000) in the latest in an ongoing series of repayments, bringing the total of recouped losses to GBP 1.5 million (EUR 1.86 million).

Earlier this year, the council was paid GBP 383,650 (EUR 475,000), which followed the initial payment of GBP 952,000 (EUR 1.18 million) paid in December, 2011.

Wiltshire Council head Jane Scott told the media that the process would likely take a few more years to complete.

However, she added, “I am very pleased the third payment from Landsbanki has been made to the council and brings our total repayments to more than £1.5 million. We will keep a close eye on the winding-up proceedings and will continue to update the public when we have news,” the BBC reported on Wednesday (10 October).

The news comes nearly a month after European regulators ruled that Reykjavik violated EU law during the crash by not ensuring that Landsbanki customers were to be repaid.

EFTA Surveillance Authority lawyer Xavier Lewis told a Luxembourg courtroom last month, “Iceland seemed to have discharged its duty to supervise the deposit guarantee scheme by actually doing nothing at all,” Bloomberg reports.