Kaupthing Bank

Kaupthing Bank (Icelandic: Kaupþing banki) was an international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was formed by the merger of Kaupthing and Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 2003 and was the largest bank in Iceland.

Kaupthing Bank previously operated in thirteen countries; including all the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the seventh largest bank in the Nordic countries in terms of market capitalization.

The bank employs over 3,300 people and maintains 36 retail branches in Iceland. As of 31 December 2007, the bank had a total assets of €58.3 billion. In 2006, it ranked number 1,006 on Forbes Global 2000, which is an annual ranking of top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine. The same year, it ranked number 177 (up by 34 places from 2005) on the list of the world's largest banks composed annually by the international finance magazine The Banker. In 2007, Kaupthing Bank had net earnings of €812 million, compared with €986 million in 2006. About 70% of the operating profit originated outside Iceland (33% in Iceland, 31% in the UK, 26% in Scandinavia, 8% in Luxembourg and 2% in other countries).

On 9 October 2008, following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority took control of the bank. So far, it has not been declared bankrupt, although it has obtained a moratorium on payments from the District Court of Reykjavík and has been suspended from trading in the Iceland Stock Exchange.

On November 20, 2009, New Kaupthing, the name given to the spin-off of the bank's Icelandic based operations, changed its name to Arion Banki. Non-Icelandic assets are still held within the bank which continues to be called Kaupthing, as of August, 2010.

Kaupthing had cross-shareholdings with other companies such as Exista. It also allegedly loaned money to various parties with the purpose of buying Kaupthing shares.