THE HAGUE, 15/10/08 - More and more Dutch local governments are emerging as having public money in the collapsed savings bank Icesave or its collapsed Icelandic parent Landsbanki. Among them are big councils like The Hague.

As far as is known, Amstelveen is the town with the most money in Landsbanki: 15 million euros. But the biggest loser known so far is Groningen provincial authority, according to public broadcaster NOS, which said yesterday 30 million euros of its assets were in accounts of Landsbanki (10 million) and fellow-Icelandic bank Kaupthing (20 million).

The Hague city council indicated it has 10 million euros in Landsbanki. Other local councils that put money in that bank include Texel (8 million euros) and Opmeer (7 million).

On Monday, it had already emerged that Goes and Pijnacker-Nootdorp municipalities had 12 million euros each in Landsbanki. Also, Alphen aan den Rijn has 3 million parked there, Zundert 2.5 million and Asten and Naarden 1 million each.

Opmeer council admits its budget will be affected if it does not get the 7 million euros back. Its liquidity position will not however be endangered, according to the council. "This is unchanged and the municipality can also continue to meet al its payments."

The local councils' relations with Landsbanki raise doubts about their financial expertise. A city like The Hague in particular could be expected to know where it was putting its money. And De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the supervisory body, admitted Icesave to the Dutch savings market too easily, according to critics.

Government authorities and companies that have deposited money with the Icelanders cannot fall back on the deposit guarantee scheme. Under this scheme, banks jointly guarantee each other's savings.

Finance Minister Wouter Bos recently decided that the guarantee ceiling for consumers and small businesses would be raised to 100,000 euros per account per saver. The CEO of Rabobank, Bert Heemskerk, has however since said that his bank is not planning to contribute to paying compensation to private savers at Icesave above the old guarantee ceiling of 38,000 euros.

The lower government authorities that bank at Landsbanki are receiving no support from central government for now. "We are not going to take over the responsibility for fellow government authorities, said Premier Jan Peter Balkenende.

Meanwhile, companies in the Netherlands are believed to have borrowed 600 million euros from Landsbanki. These loans could possibly be used to pay back deposits of Dutch savers and government authorities, said Rob Abendroth, Landsbanki's Dutch lawyer.

The Netherlands is lending Iceland the money to pay the first 20,000 euros to Dutch savers with an account at Icesave or Landsbanki. The Netherlands had earlier already said it would guarantee savings of 20,000-100,000 euros.