Iceland President Defends Pre-Crisis Tours Promoting Banks

Iceland’s President Olafur R. Grimsson defended his efforts to promote the island’s banking model in the years that led up to the crisis, arguing it was his duty to talk up an industry that was creating jobs.

“It’s always the mandate of the President to support the economy of the country and those three banks were the biggest companies,” he said in an April 12 interview in Copenhagen, before speaking at the Institute for Corporate Governance about lessons from the crisis. “They were providing thousands of young Icelanders with job opportunities, both in Iceland and in other parts of the world.”