I'M PROBABLY MISSING SOMETHING...

but I don't see how the Brits and the Dutch have a legal claim to recompense because their deposits were not protected.

Iceland rejects debt deal to repay UK, Dutch
Apr 10 11:54 AM US/Eastern
By GUDJON HELGASON
Associated Press

A tiny North Atlantic nation with a population of just 320,000, Iceland went from economic wunderkind to financial basket case almost overnight when the credit crunch took hold.

Its major banks—which had expanded to dwarf the rest of Iceland's economy during a decade of credit-fueled boom—collapsed within a week in October 2008, its krona currency plummeted and protests toppled the government.

The savings of Icelandic citizens were protected by an unlimited domestic deposit guarantee, but no such rule applied to the many foreigners attracted to Icelandic banks by their high-interest accounts.

Some 340,000 British and Dutch savers had deposited more than $5 billion in Icesave. After Icesave collapsed, British and Dutch authorities borrowed money to compensate their citizens, then turned to Iceland for repayment.