Update since the Court
hearing
As you may be aware at the Court hearing on 24 October 2008, the
petition for winding up of the Bank was adjourned following
indications from the Isle of Man Treasury that high level
discussions were taking place between the UK Treasury (representing
the interests of the Isle of Man) and the Icelandic government
which now owns Kaupthing Bank h.f. I am not a party to those
discussions and so am unfortunately unable to provide any further
update in this regard other than to say that I understand that
there is an ongoing dialogue.
In the meantime we are continuing to have discussions with a
number of interested parties regarding a sale of all or part of the
business. This process will continue over the next few weeks but
given the confidential nature of those discussions it will be
difficult for me to provide updates of a more detailed nature. As
agreed at the Court hearing on 24 October, any sale will need the
prior approval of the both the Isle of Man High Court and the
Financial Supervision Commission.
Funds in transit - deposits of
new funds made by customers after the date of my
appointment
Since the date of my appointment as Liquidator Provisionally of
Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (Isle of Man) Limited ("the
Bank") on 9 October 2008, I have been made aware of deposits from
customers which have continued to be received into bank accounts in
the name of the Bank. As the Bank had its banking licence suspended
by the Financial Supervision Commission on 8 October 2008, it can
no longer operate as a deposit taker in respect of new monies and
as such arrangements need to be made to return these funds.
We have carried out a detailed reconciliation of the bank
accounts concerned to identify those transactions which relate to
new deposits from customers. This has largely been completed and in
the next few days we will be making arrangements for the amounts to
be returned to customers.
Funds in transit - payment
requests made by customers prior to the date of my
appointment
As at the date of my appointment, there were in addition a large
number of payment transactions which had been requested by
customers but which had not reached their payment destination. Over
the last couple of weeks we have sought to clarify the precise
position in respect of these transactions, including seeking legal
advice. We will shortly be writing to the individual customers
concerned advising them of the position, as we have been able to
establish it from the information we have been provided with, and
will post a separate notice on the website.
Customers with VISA
cards
Following my appointment, the Bank's agreement with VISA Europe
Limited has been terminated. Accordingly customers are advised that
all VISA cards issued by the Bank have been cancelled and should no
longer be used as a valid form of making payments. We have written
to the customers concerned requesting that the cards are
destroyed.
Statements
We will shortly be issuing statements to customers as at 30
September 2008 - this has been slightly delayed due to logistical
difficulties. It is intended that statements as at 9 October 2008
will be issued in due course once we have completed the exercise of
making sure the statements are up to date.
Contacts
As previously, the best way to make contact is to write to the
bank or to email branch@singers.co.im. If you need to
telephone the bank, please use the main switchboard number +44 1624
699222 but we would advise that we are continuing to experience a
high level of calls and as a result there may be delays in
answering the phones.
Mike Simpson
Liquidator Provisionally