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Oxford University has £30m stuck in Iceland
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent16.10.08
THE full scale of the Iceland bank crash's impact on British institutions was emerging today.
Oxford University revealed it had £30million deposited with three stricken Icelandic banks, Landsbanki, Glitnir and Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander.
The sum is far bigger than other universities' exposure.
Embarrassingly for the local authority spending watchdog, the Audit Commission, it was also reported to have millions of pounds frozen in Reykjavik banks.
The Financial Times suggested the figure could be as high as £10million.
The revelation comes after emergency teams were sent into three local councils facing financial difficulties because they have cash blocked in collapsed Icelandic banks.
Uttlesford district council said it would receive help from one of the financial teams.
The council, which has its headquarters in Essex and covers Saffron Walden, Dunmow, Thaxted and Stansted, has £2.2million deposited with Landsbanki in a one-year deposit which expired yesterday.
"Our annual budget is £10.2million and our current forecast shortfall on the 2008/09 budget is £200,000," said a spokesman.
"We are not able to spend the money deposited with this bank because Government rules prevent us from doing so."
Plymouth City Council, which has £13million tied up in three Icelandic banks, has revealed it is to borrow an extra £9million to make up for a budget shortfall this month.
An emergency team also went into Wyre Forest District Council in Worcestershire.
The town halls are among 13 which have said they may face short-term problems although ministers insisted there was "no reason to think that wages will not be paid or that services could be at risk".
The Local Government Association has identified 116 local authorities with £858million invested in the banks.
Around a third of this sum could be recovered from the assets of Icelandic banks frozen in the UK.
Administrators Ernst & Young, however, said it would be mid-November before it could estimate accurately how much could be recovered from the British operations of the Kaupthing and Heritable banks.
20 INSTITUTIONS WITH FUNDS AT RISK
Transport For London: £40 million
Metropolitan Police: £30 million
Kent county council: £50 million
Haringey council: £37 million
Barnet council: £27 million
Newham council: £7 million
Surrey county council: £20 million
Hillingdon council: £20 million
Westminster council: £17 million
Brent council: £15 million
Sutton council: £5.5 million
Bromley council: £5 million
Sussex Police Authority: £6.8 million
Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Charities: £1.65 million
Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: £7.5 million
Central/North West London NHS Foundation Trust: £1 million
Oxford University: £30 million
Cambridge University: £11 million
National Cat Protection League: £11.2 million
The Samaritans: £1.5 million
Reader views (9)
Sir Robin Wales is not the "self-styled Mayor of Newham" He is the directly elected executive Mayor of Newham
As a resident I am glad we have a Mayor fighting for the things
- Ray, London England
What the hell is a charity - the Cats Protection League -doing with £11m+ rather than distributing it in accordance with the instructions or wills of its benefactors? We do not trust, and never have trusted, charidees & shall certainly ensure that all family, friends or acquaintances of ours are aware of this particular outfit's practices.
- Annabelle, london
Okay, Alex thanks for the clarification. I still think it's an outrage. I will be writing to the University and log my protest against these practices.
- Delphine, Oxford
Sir Robin Wales, self-styled Mayor of Newham, continually bleats about how poor a borough Newham is. Now we know why - he's been salting cash away for God knows what purposes at the council tax payers expense. As a resident of Newham, I find this offensive, especially as Robin Wales is constantly piping up for Newham to have inner city status, how poor a borough it is, how great the poverty is and how cash-strapped they are and all this with the Olympic 2012 junket on the way too. Time for an investigation folks?
- Joannie, London, England
VERY FUNNY.
- Gideon, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Just goes to show that because a lot of people do a silly thing it makes it no less of a silly thing. Iceland had nothing but cod - that's why they fought the Cod Wars against us, to protect their only vital national resource. Twenty years later they've got a high standard of living. How ? All borrowed. From idiots in the UK who got confused about risk and took financial advice from a labour government. A Labour government; you couldn't make it up.
- Peter Haldane, London
Delphine, the money has not been invested in Iceland. It has been placed in a UK bank account that just happens to be run by a foreign bank. Still, your conculsion is correct: the bursars of the relevant colleges should be fired. This is the same issue as the collapse of BCCI - people putting money into a dodgy bank to get a tiny bit more interest. They should have known better
- Alex Balfour, Hong Kong
More and more I realize we have not had any proper regulation or proper government process anticipating these problems right here in the UK. Crash Gordon keeps on saying "it all comes from the US these problems" but evidently our country is now more bankrupt than other countries...
- Georgie, London
This is just grotesque. What business has a county council or a university like Oxford and Cambridge to invest their money in Iceland?? Who are their CFO's? Why not take them to task? This is risky off-shore investment on a grand scale. I will not be giving any futher money to Oxford University when they come round with the begging bowl.
- Delphine, Oxford
