Hospice disappointed with appalling wait for Iceland money

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 22 Apr 2009

Naomi House Children’s Hospice has slammed the news that charities which lost deposits in Iceland may only get half of their money back from Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander bank (KSF) over the course of three to four years.

Cats Protection, which was granted access to all meetings on the administration process of KSF after losing £11.2m last year, has seen an advance copy of a report from the bank’s administrators, Ernst & Young, which indicates that investors will be able to reclaim a minimum of 50 per cent of their funds. The process could take up to four years.

Professor Khalid Aziz (pictured), chairman of Naomi House which is owed £5.7m, said: “It is disappointing that it is going to take another three years to get just 50 per cent of our deposits. It is appalling that we have to continue to wait.

“Charities provide services and support for the vulnerable in our society; this administration is playing with people’s lives. We believe our funds should be returned in full.”

Ernst & Young has said the first part-payment of money is expected to be made in July this year, with more to follow at a later date.

“The sum that will be returned is much lower than charities hope for,” says Aziz, “and will leave a big hole in their cashflow until 2012.”

Focus on government compensation

Other affected charities have also been underwhelmed by the news. Dominic Sullivan, director of legal services for Cats Protection, said: “We view any estimate with caution as this is a very early stage of a process which may take many years and be significantly affected by market forces.

“The cross-party Treasury Select Committee recommended earlier this month that charities should be compensated for their losses by the UK government, and this remains the primary focus.

“We are hoping the government acts on this recommendation as soon as possible and are awaiting a decision in June.”

A spokesman for Christie’s, a Manchester children’s hospital that lost £6.5m, added: “Until we are assured that the findings of the Treasury Select Committee report have been accepted and acted on by the government we will continue with all our efforts to have our funds returned.”

Meanwhile, a coalition of charity representatives has written to Chancellor Alistair Darling, urging him to act on the Treasury Select Committee’s recommendations.

Who's Who: Vibeka Mair

Place a comment

John Stephens
Accountant
Dame Alice Owen Foundation
29 Apr 2009

There is no moral reason why charities should be treated differently from other depositors, particularly worthy causes such as pensioners and local authorities.

If the government is expected to reimburse all hard luck stories either they will have to print far more money which would become worthless as in Zimbabwe or taxation will have to rise to the levels of the 1970's when for a short time the marginal rate of income tax rose above 100%.

Professor Aziz should fund raise from his supporters and not expect to be bailed out

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.