Icelander refused a repayment deal. What's next? by Magdalena Rosova

93.2 percent of Icelander's voters rejected a repayment deal on Saturday. The repayment plan to compensate the British and Dutch for billions of euros of losses after the collapse of Icesave bank accounts did not find any support among Icelanders. In 2007 Iceland was the fifth-richest country per capita in the world and today it is facing the threat of financial ruin. From 2006 Icelandic bank Landsbanki operated in the UK and later also in Netherlands where it offered its Icesave bank accounts. The bank was strongly hit by the economic crisis and had to announce its bankruptcy. The Great Britain and the Netherlands forced Reykjavik to promise to pay back the money they ! had to pay to their citizens who owned Icesave accounts. Icelandic government approved the plan in December, but President Ólafur Ragnar Grimssn refused to sign the proposal saying the terms were unfair to people of Iceland. This way the issue went to referendum. The plan proposed a repayment of total 3.8 billion euros. The repayment was planned to be completed in 2024. It was the firs referendum held in Iceland. The referendum was about the terms of the payback, people did not decide about whether Iceland would pay the money back or not. Iceland has to pay at least some of the losses. Iceland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands now have to continue in negotiations to find agreement acceptable for everyone. But the original financial agreement was even higher and Icelanders naturally did not want to pay for the collapse of a private bank. In the referendum people refused the proposal to express their opposition to the principle of repayment, others wanted! to simply punish the government. Britain and Netherlands bot! h stated that the referendum was primarily a domestic matter and they were prepared to restart negotiations.

related story (sgx16720): http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/luxury/number-of-us-mi...

by Magdalena Rosova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models