Flintshire County Council recover most of the money deposited with failed Icelandic bank

Flintshire County Council say they have recovered around 92% of the money deposited in the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki.

Council HQ

Flintshire was one of five Welsh councils with substantial amounts of cash invested in Icelandic banks, which went into receivership as the global bank crisis hit.

In total, UK councils had more than £1bn deposited in the four failed Icelandic banks at the time of their financial collapse in 2008.

Flintshire CC had £3.7 million deposited with Landsbanki and while 92p in every £1 has been recovered it leaves the councils losses at around £290,000 before any legal fees.

Kerry Feather, Head of Finance said,

‘Flintshire County Council has sold its claims against the insolvent estate of LBI (Landsbanki). The claims were sold through a competitive auction process. The price at which the claims were sold was based on a reserve price set by Flintshire County Council on the basis of legal advice received from Bevan Brittan, financial advice procured by the Local Government Association (LGA) and our own analysis of the financial position. The proceeds of the sale were paid in cash in Pounds Sterling and those funds have already been received by Flintshire County Council. The sale means that Flintshire County Council has recovered 92% of the amounts that were originally deposited with LBI in 2008, representing a very large portion of the LBI deposits. 

‘The sale of the claims represents a clean break. Flintshire County Council is now no longer a creditor of LBI.’