Diary of an Icesave Customer (Part 2)

 So I was right to be worried about where the money was going to come from to cover the Icelandic compensation scheme. It appears the cupboard was bare and the Icelandic Government have been quoted by the Chancellor as having no intention of meeting their obligations. Isn't that the point of an obligation, that you are obliged to keep to it? Hope they lose their World Cup qualifiers.

I strongly suspect that the Icelandic assault on the UK savings market is now dead and buried. First Icesave, then Heritable Bank and now Kaupthing have all been taken into public ownership. ING look like a white knight, but would I trust another overseas bank. I'll admit my confidence has been shaken. Maybe I'll stick to a UK Building Society which seem immune to all the current shenanigans.

Back to Icesave. That nice Mr Darling has promised to meet all of the UK savers deposits in full. To me that is a strong statement that the Government will look after Britons affected by a banking crisis which is not of their making. I'm relieved, but I must admit, I was surprised when they said they would cover 100% of savings, even over the £50,000 limit. Sets quite a precedent.

So what's the Icesave claim process? The Financial Services Authority and Financial Services Compensation Scheme are telling savers not to contact them, and that they will be contacted direct. So no point asking how to claim my Icesave savings back.

 I guess that means Icesave will be sending data on 300,000 customers to the Compensation Scheme people. Hope they do a better job of that than the Government have managed recently! They'll probably find it on a laptop in Tesco's car park somewhere.

 On the ISA tax benefits front, when everyone took their Cash ISAs out of Northern Rock, the Government gave special dispensation to people to use the money to take out other ISAs and keep the tax benefits. Hopefully they will do the same for Icesave customers.

 I look forward to my letter from the Compensation Scheme...