Iceland Passes Last Hurdle in $11.4 Billion Depositor Payout
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Iceland will start paying out as much as $11.4 billion in foreign depositor claims after the country’s top court upheld an emergency law that leaves bank bondholders in the lurch and protects ordinary account holders.
The decision by Iceland’s Supreme Court to rule in favor of a crisis bill enacted three years ago “marks the endpoint” to a dispute with the U.K. and the Netherlands triggered by the island’s 2008 financial collapse, Economy Minister Arni Pall Arnason said. The ruling will help repair relations with the two countries, whose depositors risked losing their savings when Iceland’s second-biggest bank collapsed, he said.