Eesti in brief - 2009-10-21

Oct 21, 2009

Just 14 percent of Estonians are satisfied with the work of the government in fighting the economic crisis, while 51 percent are not satisfied with their work, reports LETA. Polling company Turu-uuringute, which surveyed 1,000 people at the beginning of October, reached the conclusion that 25 percent of the people are rather dissatisfied with the work of the government, with 26 percent very much dissatisfied. Manager Tonis Stamberg said that the discontent is understandable. "The recent decisions of [spending] cuts and now raising two excise taxes [alcohol and tobacco] provides ample reason for this," said Stamberg. He said that the poll results have been affected by the upcoming elections. Stamberg warned that the bottom of the discontent with the government coalition may not have been reached yet.

According to the joint decision by the Estonian Financial Inspection and Swedbank, the bank will compensate certain pension fund clients who lost money. Swedbank will pay the 143 million kroons' (9.1 million euros) difference lost in the decreased value of the bank's Private Debt Fund. The financial authority began investigations after it suspected a conflict of interest in the bank's decision-making with the investment of pension funds. "There was a clear conflict of interest between the pension fund and their own private debt fund. The pension fund had a lot of assets in the debt fund and it was difficult to make a decision without hurting one of the funds," said Financial Supervision Authority representative Malle Aleksius. According to Aleksius, the bank was able to operate with this conflict of interest because laws in Estonia are too vague.

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