Landsbanki

Landsbanki hf

Company type	Private (2003–2008) Government-owned corporation (prior to 2003)
Industry	Banking
Founded	Reykjavík, Iceland, 1885 (commenced operations on 1 July 1886)
Defunct	Entered into receivership 7 October 2008, awaiting dissolution remaining assets
Successor	NBI hf
Headquarters	Reykjavík, Iceland
Key people	Björgólfur Guðmundsson (Chairman of the board), Halldór J. Kristjánsson (co-CEO), Sigurjón Þ. Arnason (co-CEO)
Number of employees	2,770 (2007)[1]
Website	landsbanki.is

Landsbanki (literally "National Bank"), also commonly known as Landsbankinn (literally "The National Bank") was one of the largest Icelandic commercial banks; it failed as part of the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis when its subsidiary sparked the Icesave dispute. On October 7, 2008, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority took control of Landsbanki and created a new bank for all the domestic operations called Nýi Landsbanki (New Landsbanki) and the bank continued to operate under the same name.^[2]

Prior to its failure, the bank was one of the largest Icelandic banks with assets of ISK 3,058 billion in December 2007 and a market capitalization of ISK 383 billion. It began operation in 1885 and was instrumental in the economic development of business and industry in Iceland. From 1927 to 1961, the bank acted as the central bank until it was replaced by the Central Bank of Iceland, although this interest was primarily directed towards note issuance rather than monetary policy. The bank had been state-owned and was privatized in stages between 1998 and 2003.

Landsbanki had positioned itself as Iceland's primary provider of general and specialized financial services to individuals, corporate entities, and institutions. The bank had the country's most extensive branch network with 40 branches and sub-branches. At the end of 2006, Landsbanki provided close to 40% of corporate lending in Iceland, and for around 60% of companies listed on the OMX Iceland Stock Exchange, Landsbanki was their principal bank or one of two banks with whom they did business. The leading provider of M&A, derivatives, equity and fixed income services.

It started to expand overseas in 2000 through a number of acquisitions and organic growth, the expansion would lead to the creation of its Icesave subsidiary in 2006 which would ultimately seal its fate.