The thing about useful stuff is: Icesave - UK Chancellor guarantees its' deposits

Icesave - UK Chancellor guarantees its' deposits Wednesday, October 08, 2008

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling

Image via WikipediaAlistair Darling, the UK Chancellor, has just said on the radio that

Iceland's Government informed him yesterday that they can't honour the deposit protection scheme for their UK branch, Icesave
The UK Deposit Protection Scheme will cover £50,000 of each customer's deposits, but in a "one-off" move the Chancellor said the UK Government will cover all deposits with Icesave.

However, he refused to confirm a guarantee applied to all deposits in all UK banks repeatedly restricting his comments to saying he would do "whatever it takes" to protect.

The first £50,000 to be covered will be funded from the banking industry, with the excess to be funded by the Government. Unlike Bradford & Bingley, there aren't any assets that can be seized/nationalised by the Government to offset the cost.