Financial crisis

As you probably know, one of the biggest victims of the ongoing global financial crisis is the state of Iceland. Google has a lot to say about this topic. But basically, thanks to the deregulation, Iceland has been enjoying a considerable economic growth during the last decade. And their banks grew overconfident, widely borrowing abroad to finance its expansion. Anyway, now the money being expensive and the amount of debt several times the GDP of the country, icelandic banks have gone bankrupt and so may the country. Or has almost done.

Btw, about Iceland. Most of the media speak about the crisis in the country as its economy collapses. But here is an interesting prospective by someone who is from Iceland.

So, to make a long story short, some time ago I deposited money into Kaupthing, at that point the biggest private bank in Iceland. When everything started to become increasing risky, I was still keeping my money there: you never know how things may change. Then on Wed morning I read that some of investors from the UK couldn't access there online bank accounts in Icesave, an online savings brand owned by yet another bankrupt bank from Iceland, Landsbanki. This made me think that now it's THE time.

Then, in the afternoon, there was a meeting was a PhD student from the Helsinki School of Economics, Hendrik Hielkema, who has just finished his Master's Thesis on a topic related to my Bachelor's Thesis. Being a business student, it's quite easy to end up chit-chatting about financial crisis. And he also told me, "Try to transfer the money now. If you still can".

I did. That was Wednesday afternoon.

And on Thursday morning Kaupthing filed for bankruptcy. And Finland officially prohibited any withdrawals or transfers from the bank, especially those to and/or from Iceland.

Luckily my transaction was done before the bankruptcy. I got all the money and even a small interest. But my colleague had all his savings there and he didn't... On top of that, it's not clear if the money is gonna be repaid: the state of Iceland guaranteed the first 20 000€ and then 5 000€ more by Finland. But what if Iceland is bankrupt?

I still haven't completely realised what has happened. Apparently, it had lots of luck for me, but still. Makes me think....

P.S. And yes, now I'm working again for Synocus Oy (www.synocus.com), now as a Project Assisstant