CHESHIRE County Council is seeking Government advice after admitting it has more than £8 million invested in Icelandic banks and their UK subsidiaries.
The authority has confirmed it has £8.5m in Heritable Bank, a UK subsidiary whose parent bank Landsbanki was recently put into administration by the Icelandic government.
More than 100 local authorities across the country have invested money in Ic
elandic banks and Prime Minister Gordon Brown says everything possible will be done to get the Icelandic authorities to repay the money swiftly.
County council spokesman Ian Callister said: "While the money is apparently at risk because the bank has frozen all its assets, the situation remains highly complex and is changing daily.
"For instance, we understand that the UK Government has frozen the assets of Icelandic UK subsidiaries. The money was invested in accordance with the Treasury Management Strategy to spread the risk by placing deposits with a large number of highly credit-rated institutions and to get the best possible return for our Council Taxpayers.
"It was approved by Council and managed in line with best practice principles and Government guidelines.
"Consequently we are liaising with the Local Government Association in an attempt to establish whether the Government will give similar protection afforded to individual savers."
Cheshire County Council has a gross budget of £1 billion and £200m invested with national and international financial institutions.
The Heritable Bank investment represents just four per cent of the authority's total portfolio.
The full article contains 252 words and appears in Evening Leader Chester newspaper.
