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Íslandsbanki Request Merger With Kvika
On May 27, Íslandsbanki requested a merger with Kvika bank, RÚV reports. Arion bank has also sent a similar request to Kvika, which confirmed this in an announcement at the stock exchange. In the announcement, Kvika’s board is said to review the…
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Side Hustle Of The Issue: The Dog Walker
With Jaki the Siberian husky, Mía the schnauzer by his side, Guðmundur Ingi Halldórsson turns heads as he strolls through downtown. But there’s more to his strut than meets the eye. With each step, a few more krónur find their way into…
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Side Hustle Of The Issue: The Weekend Musician
Prices in Reykjavík are rising as you read this, post-pandemic layoffs persist and AI is threatening to take over everybody’s job. Today’s generation isn’t worried about affording a house; we’re just happy if our expenses don’t surpass our income. Everyone is hustling.…
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Discussions Held In Parliament Over 30 Hour Working Week
Talks are currently being held in Parliament over whether the full time working week should be 30 hours or not. The Minister of Finance says that the estimated cost of shortening the working week of public shift workers is around ISK 4.2…
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Iceland’s Richest 10% Own 44% Of Assets
According to a report published by Statistics Iceland the assets of families in the highest 10% of Iceland amounted to 3,267 billion ISK or about 43.9% of total assets in the country. Total family assets in Iceland increased by 8.6% from 2018…
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Over 200 Firings Across Three Icelandic Companies Announced As Unemployment Rises
The firing of over 200 Icelanders across three Icelandic companies have been announced in the past 24 hours alone. Meanwhile, unemployment has risen since last July. The firing of 100 people from Arion Bank reported on earlier today is only the tip…
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Arion Bank Tightens Its Belt, Mass Firings Pending
The board of Arion Bank has decided that organisational changes they seek to make will be implemented today, Kjarninn reports. Entailed in these changes will be firing 12% of their employees, totally about a hundred people. About 80% of those slated for…
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Króna Drops As Banking Crisis Anniversary Nears
The Icelandic Króna (ISK) has dropped by six percent against the euro since the beginning of September, RÚV reports. In a matter of hours on Tuesday morning it fell two percent. The Central Bank used its foreign reserves to prevent an even…
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High Rollers: The Wacky World Of Icelandic Finance
When the Panama Papers leak broke last year, then-Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson wasn’t the only Icelander revealed to be involved in some shady dealings. In fact, Iceland featured most prominently of all in the leak, which uncovered how the global rich…
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Money Laundering In Iceland, And How We’re Fighting It
Guðrún Árnadóttir and Björn Þorvaldsson do not have the most glamorous jobs in the world. In fact, chances are you never heard of them before if you haven’t been following the Icelandic news for the past ten years now. And yet these…
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Political Party Treasurer Crowdfunding First Apartment
The treasurer of the Left-Green Movement has started a crowdfunding campaign to finance the buying of her first apartment. Una Hildardóttir told Vísir that she started the campaign to satirise the absurd difficulties facing young people in the housing market. “I recently…
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So What’re These Russian Trade Sanctions I Keep Hearing About?
In March of last year, Iceland joined in internationally coordinated trade sanctions against Russia. The principal advocates were the United States and members of the European Union, but many nations are partaking, including Japan, Australia and Montenegro. These sanctions were put in…
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So What’s This I Keep Hearing About Rising Inequality in Iceland?
There are many reasons for rising inequality in the world, but in Iceland the main cause is simple. The current right-wing government has lowered taxes affecting the rich. To illustrate this, let us pick an example at random: the wealthy Mr. Sigmundur…
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News In Brief: May 2015
It’s that time of year again: time to argue about whale hunting! An umbrella organisation of numerous whale-watching companies have criticised whale hunting just outside the Faxaflói Bay area, where a whole lot of whale-watching takes place. Their main argument is that…
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Who Knew Banking Was Really About Dead Cats?
The Reykjavik District Court is now one week into what has been dubbed the “large Kaupthing market manipulation case.” So far, the court heard the oral testimony of two traders, Pétur Kristinn Guðmarsson and Birnir Snær Björnsson, and their superior, head of…
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Review: ‘Scarcity In Excess: The Built Environment And The Economic Crisis In Iceland’
Ever since the year 2008, the word “kreppa” (crisis) has been among the most-used by Icelanders, a part of daily parlance and the subject of many a publication, dissertation and research venture. The little island suddenly had the world’s spotlight, and not…
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Bankers On Trial, Again
The Reykjavík District Court began hearing oral testimony on Monday in the largest case relating to the events leading up to the crash of 2008. Nine former managers of Kaupthing bank are on trial for market manipulation in the 11 months leading…
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Fitch Revises Iceland’s Outlook to Positive
Fitch Ratings has revised Iceland’s outlook to Positive from Stable and affirmed the IDRs at ‘BBB’ and ‘BBB+’, respectively, reports Reuters. Fitch estimates that domestic demand – especially private consumption and investment – will remain the driver of economic growth in Iceland…
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Iceland’s Showdown With Creditors Arrives
The Icelandic government will tell hedge funds and other creditors in its failed banks how their claims can be settled this week, reports Bloomberg. The government has reportedly designed a model to protect the ISK from any instability that might result from…
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Finance Minister’s Family Purchase State Assets Behind Closed Doors
Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson’s family was granted early access to an unadvertised share sale that allowed them to purchase a stake in Landsbankinn asset Borgun, reports Kjarninn. In all, Landsbankinn sold 31.5% of Borgun shares in this sale to a number of companies. The largest…
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Iceland’s Euro Bonds Yield 2.6%
The six-year euro-denominated bonds Iceland put up for sale in preparation to phase out capital controls have yielded 2.6% and mark a good return to the European market, reports Bloomberg. “We are happy,” Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson said. “We are refinancing all…
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Iceland Prepares To Phase Out Capital Controls
Iceland is planning to sell six-year euro-denominated bonds in a push to ease the capital controls that have been in place since the economic collapse of 2008. According to Bloomberg, the government hired Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase…
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Three Bankers Charged With Financial Crimes
Former Glitnir manager Lárus Welding, former managing director of marketing at Glitnir Jóhannes Baldursson and former bank manager of Saga Capital Þorvaldur Lúðvík Sigurjónsson all have one thing in common: they are all facing charges of market manipulation. DV reports that the charges…