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I don't think Iceland's government defaulted. AFAIK, they simply let their own banks fail and made no move to support them. UK was pretty pissed off because the

I don't think Iceland's government defaulted. AFAIK, they simply let their own banks fail and made no move to support them. UK was pretty pissed off because their citizens lost cash in those banks, and they expected Iceland's citizens to cover for them. Greece is in a completely different pot of hot water. Their incomes (taxes) keep being lower than expenditures, aka salaries, pensions etc. Not getting any more EU help means they will start paying their doctors and firefighters with monopoly money.

peterfirefly 11y ago
> and they expected Iceland's citizens to cover for them. because that was actually Iceland's obligation so it wasn't at all unreasonable for the UK and the Netherlands to expect that. http://ec.europa.eu/finance/bank/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/finance/bank/index_en.htm (Single Passport and cross-border banking)
- nextw33k 11y ago
  I don't know the exact details but I didn't think Iceland was in Europe, the UK wanted to rush them in so that those rules could apply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_Eu...
  - peterfirefly 11y ago
    Iceland is and was in the EFTA and hence in the EEA where the single-passport rules apply -- and applied back then as well, otherwise the Iceland banks operating in the UK and the Netherlands would have been under UK/NL supervision instead of IS supervision. UK/NL were not ALLOWED under those rules to meaningfully supervise IS banks operating in their countries. As long as they operated under IS law and IS supervision, they operated under IS insurance rules with the usual EU (EEA) 100k€ limit. Iceland blatantly broke the rules. Later, after the shit hit the fan, Iceland did apply for EU membership and negotiations begun. Iceland later withdrew their application.

peterfirefly 11y ago

> and they expected Iceland's citizens to cover for them. because that was actually Iceland's obligation so it wasn't at all unreasonable for the UK and the Netherlands to expect that. http://ec.europa.eu/finance/bank/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/finance/bank/index_en.htm (Single Passport and cross-border banking)

nextw33k 11y ago
I don't know the exact details but I didn't think Iceland was in Europe, the UK wanted to rush them in so that those rules could apply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Iceland_to_the_Eu...
- peterfirefly 11y ago
  Iceland is and was in the EFTA and hence in the EEA where the single-passport rules apply -- and applied back then as well, otherwise the Iceland banks operating in the UK and the Netherlands would have been under UK/NL supervision instead of IS supervision. UK/NL were not ALLOWED under those rules to meaningfully supervise IS banks operating in their countries. As long as they operated under IS law and IS supervision, they operated under IS insurance rules with the usual EU (EEA) 100k€ limit. Iceland blatantly broke the rules. Later, after the shit hit the fan, Iceland did apply for EU membership and negotiations begun. Iceland later withdrew their application.