Icesave - UK Chancellor guarantees its' deposits

Image via WikipediaAlistair Darling, the UK Chancellor, has just said on the radio that

• Iceland's Government informed him yesterday that they can't honour the deposit protection scheme for their UK branch, Icesave
• The UK Deposit Protection Scheme will cover £50,000 of each customer's deposits, but in a "one-off" move the Chancellor said the UK Government will cover all deposits with Icesave.

However, he refused to confirm a guarantee applied to all deposits in all UK banks repeatedly restricting his comments to saying he would do "whatever it takes" to protect.

The first £50,000 to be covered will be funded from the banking industry, with the excess to be funded by the Government. Unlike Bradford & Bingley, there aren't any assets that can be seized/nationalised by the Government to offset the cost.

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