| Former type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Banking |
| Fate | Government custodianship, moratorium on payments |
| Successor | Arion banki (Icelandic business only) |
| Founded | Reykjavík, Iceland, 1930 (foundation of Búnaðarbanki) |
| Defunct | 9 October 2008 |
| Headquarters | Reykjavík, Iceland |
| Key people | Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson (CEO), Sigurður Einarsson (Chairman of the board), Ingólfur Helgason (CEO in Iceland), Ármann Þorvaldsson (CEO in United Kingdom) |
| Profit | €812 million (2007)[1] |
| Total assets | €58.34 billion (2007)[1] |
| Employees | 3,330 (2007)[1] |
| Website | www.kaupthing.com, www.arionbanki.is |
Kaupthing Bank (Icelandic: Kaupþing banki) was an international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was formed by the merger of Kaupthing and Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 2003 and was the largest bank in Iceland.
Kaupthing Bank previously operated in thirteen countries; including all the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the seventh largest bank in the Nordic countries in terms of market capitalization.
The bank employs over 3,300 people and maintains 36 retail branches in Iceland. As of 31 December 2007, the bank had a total assets of €58.3 billion.[2] In 2006, it ranked number 1,006 on Forbes Global 2000, which is an annual ranking of top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine.[3] The same year, it ranked number 177 (up by 34 places from 2005) on the list of the world's largest banks composed annually by the international finance magazine The Banker.[4] In 2007, Kaupthing Bank had net earnings of €812 million, compared with €986 million in 2006. About 70% of the operating profit originated outside Iceland (33% in Iceland, 31% in the UK, 26% in Scandinavia, 8% in Luxembourg and 2% in other countries).[2]
On 9 October 2008, following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority took control of the bank.[5] So far, it has not been declared bankrupt, although it has obtained a moratorium on payments from the District Court of Reykjavík and has been suspended from trading in the Iceland Stock Exchange.
On November 20, 2009, New Kaupthing, the name given to the spin-off of the bank's Icelandic based operations, changed its name to Arion Banki. Non-Icelandic assets are still held within the bank which continues to be called Kaupthing, as of August, 2010.
Kaupthing had cross-shareholdings with other companies such as Exista.[6] It also allegedly loaned money to various parties with the purpose of buying Kaupthing shares.[7]
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The bank is known as Kaupthing Bank outside of Iceland.
In Iceland, its official name is Kaupþing Banki hf.
Formerly, its official name was Kaupþing Búnaðarbanki hf., but the name was changed as the former name was considered too unwieldy for most people. From 2003 to 2006 the company used the name KB banki for its retail operations in Iceland. In December 2006, however, the bank started using the old name of Kaupþing for its network of high-street banks. It was announced that the change was part of the bank's plan to operate under the same name.[8]
In November 2009 the bank changed its name to Arion Bank.
Established in 1982 as a small agency for financial advisory and securities brokerage, Kaupthing has since then been at the forefront of changes in the Icelandic financial market, continually setting trends and being one of the five founding partners of the Icelandic Stock Exchange. In the mid 1990s Kaupthing widened its focus to include opportunities abroad, and becoming the first Icelandic financial institution to operate outside Iceland.
Kaupthing was listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange in October 2000, at which point the original owners of the Bank, the savings banks in Iceland, reduced their holdings, and individuals and institutional investors replaced them as shareholders. Kaupthing Bank shares were listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (now OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm) in 2002.
In September, internal documents from Kaupthing Bank were leaked, from shortly before the collapse of Iceland's banking sector, which led to the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis.
By 9 October 2008, Kaupthing Bank HF was forced into government receivership – only days after a crisis at Landsbanki placed it into government control.[9] Due to the crisis throughout the Icelandic financial system, all trading in the country's equity markets was suspended on 13 October 2008. On 29 July 2009 Wikileaks exposed a confidential 210 page document listing Kaupthing's exposure to loans ranging from 45 million to 1.25 billion Euros.[10] The leaked presentation revealed the bank had loaned billions of euros to its major shareholders, including a total of €1.43 billion to Exista and subsidiaries which own 23% of the bank.[11]
On 9 December 2009, Daniel Thordarsson, former asset manager, and Stefnir Ingi Agnarsson, former stock broker, both of Kaupthing Hf, were sentenced to eight-month prison terms by the Reykjavik District Court.
The pair was charged with putting in offers to buy Exista shares six times in January and February last year shortly before the close of business, so that the offers would affect the end-of-day value of Exista shares. The charges were of submitting false purchase enquiries and of share price manipulation.
Kaupthing Edge was a pan-European retail deposit-taking brand. The purpose of the brand was to diversify liabilities on the Kaupthing balance sheet by currency, customer type (personal/retail) and country. Kaupthing Edge offered two deposit products: a savings account and a fixed-term deposit account. Both were straightforward high-interest products. In Belgium customers could choose a third product which was a current account. Kaupthing Edge savings and fixed-term deposit accounts were managed over the Internet with the support of telephony call centres.
Kaupthing Edge was available in eleven countries in Europe:
Kaupthing Edge accounts were protected within the EU by compulsory depositors protection schemes. These schemes are financed by a levy on the respective countries financial industry. In the case of the UK, the government would forward a loan to the scheme against future increased payments in case of a shortfall.
Kaupthing Edge is a word play on 'cutting edge'.
Meidur (later renamed to Exista) acquired a 12% stake of Kaupthing Bank in October 2002.[23]
On 8 October 2008, the UK's FSA transferred the UK deposit accounts to ING. In its statement, "The FSA has determined that Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander no longer meets its threshold conditions, and is likely to be unable to continue to meet its obligations to depositors...The FSA concluded that KSF is in default for the purposes of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme".[24]
On 9 October 2008, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority took control of Kaupthing after the resignation of the entire board of directors.[5][25] This came about when "Britain transferred control of the business of Kaupthing Edge, its Internet bank, to ING Direct and put Kaupthing's UK operations into administration" placing Kaupthing in technical default according to loan agreements.[26] The prime minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde, has stated that the British government brought down Kaupthing unnecessarily by abusing their power.
The same day the EBK (Swiss Federal Banking Commission) started proceedings under the Swiss Deposit Insurance scheme[27] with respect to the Geneva branch of Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg. EKB requested customers of that branch to contact them so that compensation of up to 30000 Swiss Francs could be paid.[28]
In Finland, the Financial Supervision Authority (Rahoitustarkastus) took control over the Finnish branch to prevent funds being transferred to Iceland.[17] It has said that it believes that no one will lose their money.[29] Finnish branch paid all its liabilities to its customers with debt it got from three major Finnish banks. Finnish branch then liquidated all of its assets and paid back debt to the Finnish banks. According to Finnish authorities Kaupthing Edge ended its operations in Finland on 30 January 2009.[30]
WikiLeaks has made available an internal document from Kaupthing Bank from just prior to the collapse of Iceland's banking sector, which led to the 2008–2009 Icelandic financial crisis. The document shows that suspiciously large sums of money were loaned to various owners of the bank, and large debts written off. Kaupthing's lawyers have threatened Wikileaks with legal action, citing banking privacy laws. The leak has caused an uproar in Iceland and may result in criminal charges against the individuals involved.
On 9 March 2011, Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz were arrested in London by the UK's Serious Fraud Office as part of their ongoing investigation in conjunction with Iceland's Special Prosecutor’s Office into the collapse of Icelandic Bank Kaupthing.[31][32]