ok Thompson, hard to explain this without recourse to on line resources I've been criticised for using.

However local authorities have been encouraged, after catching previous 'colds' to spread their investments (to meet salary costs etc) as widely as possible.

They were also encouraged to 'maximise' their investments, so many have money in the 3 main Icelandic banks up to about 7% of total investments believing that the government would honour such deposits as well as spread around many domestic institutions.

In fact the individual savers with the Icelandic banks were often 'average' citizens who had invested their personal pension life savings.