Legal structure 
FIH is wholly owned by Kaupthing Bank. Kaupthing Bank 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.

FIH holds a separate Danish Banking License and is ring fenced from Kaupthing with no cross default between Kaupthing and FIH. Furthermore, FIH is subject to supervision of The Danish Financial Supervision Authority and treated as an independent legal banking entity.

Upstreaming of funds is governed by general Danish Banking legislation. Upstreaming is only allowed with prior application and permission from the Danish FSA. This permission must be renewed annually.

Downstreaming of funds were at the time of the acquisition limited thereby reducing FIH’s dependence on funding from the mother company.

FIH has no exposure towards Kaupthing, Icelandic assets or the Icelandic economy. 

The FIH group comprises FIH Erhvervsbank A/S and a number of wholly owned subsidiaries:

• FIH Finance A/S
• FIH PARTNERS A/S
• FIH Kapital Bank A/S
• FIH Leasing og Finans A/S          
• FIH Realkredit A/S

Historic changes in the ownership structure
The FIH Franchise was established in 1958 by the Danish government and five major commercial banks to address corporate needs for medium-term capital.

In 2000 FIH a group of investors with FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) as the majority shareholder bought FIH and subsequently delisted FIH. Kaupthing bought FIH in 2004.

FIH has in it’s 50 years of existence grown into a strong player in banking field - specialising in lending to Danish corporate clients.