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Icelandic Parliament’s Economic Affairs and Trade Committee Holds Bank Separation Hearings
19 February 2014
(EIRNS) — Last week, closed hearings were held about the bank separation motion under discussion in the Economic Affairs and Trade Committee of Iceland’s parliament, Althingi. According to a member of the committee from an opposition party who was contacted today, there was testimony from the large new banks formed after the Icelandic financial meltdown, which were against bank separation; and from small banks and an investment bank, which were for bank separation. The next step will be for the committee to request that government ministers report to them about the progress of the two government committees on banking reform, which the former government had commissioned, regarding proposals for banking stability, which could include something like the EU’s Liikanen proposals for a kind of separation of insolvent banks. The committee member expected a committee vote in one or two months, because the committee will likely wait until the findings of the two government committees are presented, but he is not optimistic about the outcome, as the new government is not promoting the motion. He also said, howver, that they are trying to follow the bank separation debate in the rest of Europe, and the U.S., and that the developments elsewhere will shape the debate in Iceland. [MR_] |