Iceland does not hit the international headlines often but it did so last October. Kaupthing Bunadarbanki, the country’s biggest bank, acquired 9.5% of UK investment bank Singer & Friedlander. It was widely seen as a prelude to a takeover.
Not long after that, in November, Iceland’s prime minister David Oddsson withdrew all his savings in Kaupthing. He was protesting against what many regarded as an over-generous share option scheme for executive chairman Sigurdur Einarsson and joint chief executive Hreidar Sigurdsson.
