Icelandic banks

BBC Radio 4's Money Box Saturday, 4 October at 1204 BST On Radio 4 and Online 04 October 2008 Programme transcript (20 pages)

The Icelandic government is seeking a loan from abroad to prop up its ailing economy.

Despite its small size Iceland supports several large banks and more than 100,000 UK savers have put their money into its two biggest: Kaupthing and Landsbanki.

Last weekend the Icelandic government rescued its third biggest bank Glitnir.

Tryggvi Herbertsson the economic adviser to the Icelandic prime minister and Mark Sismey-Durrant, chief executive of Icesave in the UK, joined us to explore the financial situation.

Icelandic banks

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The FSA will now consider if the limit should be raised even higher

The compensation limit for savings will go up to �50,000 from Tuesday 7 October, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has confirmed.

Previously, the first �35,000 of savers' deposits had been protected.

There were growing calls for deposits for all savers to be protected without limit following the move by the Irish government to guarantee all deposits in six Irish banks and building societies, also covering branch customers in Northern Ireland.

We spoke to Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers Association and asked Chris Pond of the FSA for his view.

Compensation limit rise

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The package aims to buy up bad debts of Wall Street institutions

US bail-out

The US House of Representatives has voted in favour of a $700bn (�394bn) bail-out plan aimed at rescuing the US financial system.

The House vote was the second in a week, following its shock rejection of an earlier version on Monday.

Senate had approved the measure earlier and President George W Bush signed it into law shortly afterwards.

And in the UK the Bank of England agreed to lend banks �40bn on Tuesday, following with similar amounts in future weeks.

We got a reaction to the US bail-out plan from Michael Hughes, an economist and independent investment consultant.

US bail-out

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Fuel poverty in the UK rose to 3.5 million households in 2006

Fuel poverty

Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged are taking the government to court on Monday claiming it is failing to keep its legal duty to eradicate fuel poverty.

Fuel poverty is defined as households who spend more than 10% of their income on fuel.

The Warm Homes & Energy Conservation Act 2000 obliges the government to take measures to eradicate all fuel poverty in England by 2016 and for vulnerable groups by 2010.

Mervyn Kohler, special advisor to Help the Aged, spoke to us about the action his organisation is taking.

Fuel poverty

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BBC Radio 4's Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 4 October 2008 at 1204 BST.

The programme was repeated on Sunday, 5 October 2008 at 2102 BST.

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