Icelandic ex-minister criticises Wellink

The minister in charge of Iceland’s banking sector at the time of the collapse of online savings bank Icesave has accused Dutch central bank president Nout Wellink of making a ‘rude misleading’ statement while giving evidence to a government commission.

Last week, Wellink told the De Wit commission investigating the cause and effect of the economic crisis that he felt the Icelandic authorities had lied to him about the stability of Icesave.
In an article in Wednesday’s Volkskrant, Björgvin Sigurdsson criticises what he says is the way Wellink tries to blame the Icelandic financial sector regulator for the collapse of the bank.
And Sigurdsson said iceland had told the Dutch authorities the country could never guarantee all the savings placed in Icesave.
France, he pointed out, refused to give Icesave access to its markets. Now, the Dutch and Icelandic taxpayers would have to bear the cost of the Dutch decision to allow Icesave to target its savers.
Iceland will soon hold a referendum on the repayment of €1.3bn to the Netherlands and €2.5bn to Britain. The two countries lent the money to Iceland so it could repay Icesave clients who lost their savings following the bankruptcy.