Bringing Down the Banking System (eBook)

Lessons from Iceland

G. Johnsen (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2014 | 2014
XXII, 243 Seiten
Palgrave Macmillan US (Verlag)
978-1-137-34735-0 (ISBN)

Infos

How could tiny Iceland build a banking system in less than a decade that proportionally exceeded Switzerland's? Why did the bankers decide to grow the system so fast? How did businesses tunnel money out of the banking system? And why didn't anybody stop them? Bringing Down the Banking System answers these questions.

Gudrun Johnsen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Arion Bank, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Iceland, and Research Associate in the Department of Private Law at the University of Oslo, Norway.

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The combined collapse of Iceland's three largest banks in 2008 is the third largest bankruptcy in history and the largest banking system collapse suffered by any country in modern economic history, relative to GDP. How could tiny Iceland build a banking system in less than a decade that proportionally exceeded Switzerland's? Why did the bankers decide to grow the system so fast? How did businesses tunnel money out of the banking system? And why didn't anybody stop them? Bringing Down the Banking System answers these questions. Gudrun Johnsen, Senior Researcher with Iceland's Special Investigation Commission, tells the riveting story of the rise and fall of the Icelandic banking system, describes the Commission's findings on the damaging effects of holding company cross-ownership, and explains what we can learn from it all.

Autor

Gudrun Johnsen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Arion Bank, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Iceland, and Research Associate in the Department of Private Law at the University of Oslo, Norway. She served as a Senior Researcher with Iceland's Special Investigation Commission following the banks' collapse.

Inhalt

Cover 1
Half-Title 2
Title 4
Copyright 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 10
List of Tables 14
Acknowledgments 16
List of Characters 18
Timeline of Relevant Events 22
Part I From Prosperity to Panic 24
Chapter 1 Illusion of Prosperity 25
Chapter 2 Collapse 34
Chapter 3 Panic 40
Chapter 4 Investigation 68
Part II How Did the Bankers Do It? 78
Chapter 5 Financial Liberalization 79
Chapter 6 Funding the Banks 94
Chapter 7 The Geyser Crisis 102
Chapter 8 Love Letters to the Rescue 110
Chapter 9 Playing Tricks on the European Central Bank 116
Part III Why Did the Bankers Do It? 126
Chapter 10 The Web of Ownership 127
Chapter 11 Tunneling Money through Related-Party Lending 136
Chapter 12 Market Manipulation and Falsification of Equity 154
Chapter 13 Wages of Failure 170
Part IV Why Didn’t Anybody Stop the Bankers? 184
Chapter 14 Funded by the Ill-Informed 185
Chapter 15 A Debt-Free State Isolated and without Credit
Chapter 16 Putting a Poodle on Watch 204
Chapter 17 What Have We Learned? 210
Notes 214
References 242
Index 248

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.1.2014
• Zusatzinfo: XXII, 243 p.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Finanzierung
• Themenwelt: Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Spezielle Betriebswirtschaftslehre ► Bankbetriebslehre
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Finanzwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: 2008 • Banking • financial collapse • financial crash • Financial History • Global financial crisis • Iceland
• ISBN-10: 1-137-34735-X / 113734735X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-137-34735-0 / 9781137347350