By Vivienne Russell | 9 October 2012
English councils have received the third tranche of money from the failed Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, the Local Government Association revealed today.
The payment, worth £25m, means local authorities have now recovered around half of the £416m they had on deposit in the bank when it collapsed in October 2008.
Councils had placed more than £1bn in four Icelandic banks, which all failed when the global financial crisis hit. More than £700m of this has now been recovered.
LGA chair Sir Merrick Cockell said the return of the funds was a ‘vindication’ of the LGA’s decision to fight for councils’ ‘priority creditor’ status.
This allowed local authorities to be among the first to be compensated by the banks’ winding up boards.
‘We will continue to work with our legal representatives at Bevan Brittan and the banks’ administrators to ensure the further recovery of as much of the remaining £300m as possible. We are confident that we will receive further money in the short to medium term,’ Cockell said.
English councils have received the third tranche of money from the failed Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, the Local Government Association revealed today.
The payment, worth £25m, means local authorities have now recovered around half of the £416m they had on deposit in the bank when it collapsed in October 2008.
Councils had placed more than £1bn in four Icelandic banks, which all failed when the global financial crisis hit. More than £700m of this has now been recovered.
LGA chair Sir Merrick Cockell said the return of the funds was a ‘vindication’ of the LGA’s decision to fight for councils’ ‘priority creditor’ status.
This allowed local authorities to be among the first to be compensated by the banks’ winding up boards.
‘We will continue to work with our legal representatives at Bevan Brittan and the banks’ administrators to ensure the further recovery of as much of the remaining £300m as possible. We are confident that we will receive further money in the short to medium term,’ Cockell said.