Most governments would have been delighted to do what Iceland managed with its sale of Íslandsbanki shares earlier this year. But an audit of the deal has triggered a war of words with the body responsible for it, as well as some very odd conclusions from an Excel spreadsheet.

Banks must keep spending on systems that deliver more efficient anti-money laundering as crises spur financial crime.

Bank privatizations are never simple, but the outcry that has erupted in Iceland over a recent sale of Íslandsbanki shares looks set to halt the programme in its tracks – despite the overwhelming success of the bank’s landmark IPO in 2021. With state holding company ISFI now under threat of being closed down, its head takes Euromoney through the drama of the last 12 months.

Part two: The fallout from Iceland’s banking crisis rumbled on for seven years. Members of the task force set up to deal with seemingly insurmountable problems arising from creditors – chiefly aggressive hedge funds – reveal the inside story of how, from a position of disaster, a lot of parties ended up in one of relative triumph.

Part one: Iceland’s banking crisis still fascinates and appals in equal measure. The first steps towards resolution were led by a group of unheralded officials and advisers for whom the events of late 2008 and 2009 were like sending out half a football team to play a competitive match. Ten years after it happened, this is their story.

The country’s banks are much more investable than they have been for over a decade – whether or not that makes them attractive enough to relist and attract foreign investors is another question.

Iceland may remove, as early as the first quarter of 2018, the last of its capital restrictions imposed in the wake of its financial crisis, say market players.