Banking in Iceland faced a crisis in 2008, which resulted in the government taking over three of its largest

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with co ...

s. The short-term liabilities of Icelandic banks in proportion to Iceland's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

are 211%, as of 11 October 2008, or 480% of the country's national debt, and the average leverage ratio (assets/net worth) is 1 to 14.

History

Icelandic financial crisis

In 2008, Iceland's three major privately owned

commercial banks A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with corp ...

defaulted.

Major Banks

Central Bank

Seðlabanki Íslands The Central Bank of Iceland ( is, Seðlabanki Íslands) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It has served in this capacity since 1961, when it was created by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsba ...

Major Commercial Banks

* Landsbankinn *

Íslandsbanki Íslandsbanki is an Icelandic bank with roots tracing back to 1875, formerly being the domestic part of Glitnir banki hf., but on 15 October 2008 being split from the bankrupt Glitnir and reestablished into a new independent bank. The sole opera ...

* Arion banki * MP banki

Investment Banks

ALMC hf ALMC hf., formerly Straumur Investment Bank hf. ( is, Straumur Fjárfestingabanki), is a regional investment bank headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. Founded in 1986 as ''Hlutabréfasjóðurinn'' and rebranded as Straumur in 2004, the bank in ...

References

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