Iceland speeds up bank asset sale to repay Britain £2.3bn

Iceland plans to speed up a sale of retail assets in a bid to repay £2.3 billion to Britain.

The country was provided with £3.4 billion worth of loans by the British and Dutch governments following the collapse of Landsbanki in 2008. The nationalised bank has interests in Iceland frozen food stores, toy store Hamleys and House of Fraser which the government plans to dispose of in order to repay the loans.

According to the Daily Mail, Landsbanki, which is run by a resolution committee, will start to dispose of retail assets to raise some of the money needed ‘by Christmas’.

The British government stepped in to help Iceland in 2008, bailing out customers of Landsbanki’s online sister company Icesave.

Icelanders had previously rejected a plan to pay back the debt but President Olafur Ragnar Grimson has decided a sell-off of Landsbanki’s assets would provide an alternative resolution.

‘We will begin to see more activity in the next few weeks. Reykjavik wants the British and Dutch off its back,’ a source told the newspaper.