Is it a good idea for such a large stake in the bank to be controlled by individuals with no track record in banking? And what’s the background of these people who apparently earned their fortune in the beverages business in Russia? Indeed the validity of one of their first, key acquisitions in Russia – a soft-drinks bottler in St Petersburg – has been challenged vigorously in Russian and Icelandic courts by the original owners.

Several judgments have gone against the father and son. Even within Iceland this does not seem to be well known.

There’s another question. Why is it that the prime minister’s office, the privatization committee, the finance ministry and the central bank seem so unconcerned by Björgólfur Gudmundsson’s contribution to bringing a bank in Iceland to the point of insolvency in the 1980s?

From Euromoney November 2002

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