Press Enquiry

My response to glen07's blog about a press enquiry. See http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org/blog-entry/press-enquiry-update-ksfiom-...

Dear Mr Goodman,

I am a former depositor with Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander who lives in Australia.

Alan Bell can claim what he likes about what has been returned to Kaupthing IOM depositors but the following facts remain:

That on his watch the FSC (financial Supervision Commission) licensed a failing bank to operate on the Isle of Man. At about the same time the FSA had concerns about Kaupthing (towards the end of 2007) the FSC allowed Kaupthing to take over the Derbyshire Building Society on the IOM anyway. Interestingly in 2009 the head of the FSC, John Aspden, got a 10% pay rise taking his annual pay to about £250,000, I believe he is paid more more than his counter part Hector Sants at the FSA.

A large number of us have received only 40% of what we are owed.

It took almost 1 year to get just under 25% of our funds returned. The Isle of Man government spent months trying to develop and impose a Scheme of Arrangement on depositors.

I suspect that Mr Bell is also being disingenuous about the percentage of depositors being covered under the compensation scheme. Many of those who have claimed under the DCS have also not received all of their money back. He might just be quoting the percentage of depositors who have claimed through the DCS. Many depositors didn't because they had considerably more than £50,000 and had nothing to gain compared with receiving money straight from the liquidator. In fact, those who have claimed directly from the liquidator actually receive their money the same day it is distributed by the liquidator. Those who claim through the DCS have to wait because the money is passed to the scheme administrator who then takes weeks to pass it on to its claimants.

The year 2017 (1) has been reported in the UK media about as about the time that depositors will finally be paid out. In that time what is returned will be diminished by inflation, loss of interest and for those who live overseas the decline of Sterling, which has lost 1/3 of its value against the Australian Dollar in the past 18 months. Add to this that the UK government just prints money and makes no serious attempt to deal with Britain's debt problem will further erode what is returned to me. I personally believe we may see a few more payments and the rest will be absorbed in liquidators' fees as has happened in past bank failures on the IOM, Kaupthing is not an exception.

Recently the Kaupthing Winding Up Committee rejected a claim made by the liquidator under the Parental Guarantee. Many of us have also lodged personal claims which were also rejected. Those of us who were originally with the Derbyshire were given following assurance when Kaupthing got hold of our deposits "Not only are deposits held with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in the Isle of Man covered by the Depositors Compensation Scheme contained in the Isle Of Man Banking Business (Compensation of Depositors) regulations 1991, all deposits, including those of Derbyshire Offshore clients, are also fully guaranteed by Kaupthing Hf - with this guarantee customers have peace of mind that their savings are fully secured." [My emphasis]

This worthless assurance was accepted by the IOM authorities.

Yours sincerely,

xxx

1.

  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_...

P.S. One the alternatives for Kaupthing that my spell checker suggests is “plaything”. That's just what our savings were for the Icelandic financial elite who have not been brought to book for what they've done to Iceland and many innocent Kaupthing IOM savers.