Iceland chose a different approach to the EU - it refused to nationalize bank's debt and continued with normal economic management while the banks collapsed. The debt of $85 billion has been left a private matter, much of it now owned by hedge funds. The Icelandic economy is now showing low unemployment of 4% and healthy growth rates.

The World Bank has praised their approach, and despite low credit ratings (Moody and Fitch both BBB) Iceland has successfully issued Dollar bonds and this July a 6 year E750 million Eurobond issue was three times oversubscribed with a yield of 2.56%. This is a huge vote of confidence by the market .