Glitnir Bank Files US$2bn Legal Claim Against Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson and Other Former Directors and Shareholders, Alleging Fraud; also Sues PwC for Malpractice and Negligence

Lawsuit Filed in New York Court

NEW YORK, May 12, 2010 - Glitnir Bank announces that it has commenced legal action in
the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson,
formerly its principal shareholder, Lárus Welding, previously Glitnir's Chief
Executive, Thorsteinn Jonsson, its former Chairman, and other former
directors, shareholders and third parties associated with Jóhannesson, for
fraudulently and unlawfully draining more than $2 billion out of the Bank.

Glitnir is also taking action against its former auditors
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), for facilitating and helping to conceal the
fraudulent transactions engineered by Jóhannesson and his associates, which
ultimately led to the Bank's collapse in October 2008.

Glitnir has also secured a freezing order from the High Court
in London against Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson's worldwide assets, including two
apartments in Manhattan's exclusive Gramercy Park neighbourhood, for which he
paid approximately $25 million.

Jóhannesson - beneficial owner of the now-defunct Baugur
investment group - is understood to be domiciled in the United Kingdom, and
still holds a number of high-profile directorships there, including Iceland
Foods and House of Fraser, two of the UK's best-known retailers.

    The lawsuit, filed in New York on May 11, shows:

    - How a cabal of businessmen led by Jóhannesson conspired to
      systematically loot Glitnir Bank in order to prop up their own
      failing companies

    - How Jóhannesson and his co-conspirators seized control of
      Glitnir, removing or sidelining experienced Bank employees - and
      abused this control to place the Bank in extreme financial peril

    - How Jóhannesson, Welding and the other Defendants
      facilitated and concealed their diversions from the Bank by
      overriding Glitner's financial risk controls, violating Iceland's
      banking laws, and orchestrating a blizzard of convoluted stock
      "parking" transactions

    - How the individual Defendants, with the complicity of
      Glitnir's auditor PwC, raised $1bn from investors in New York without
      revealing the truth about the Bank's financial exposures to Jóhannesson
      and his co-conspirators

    - How the Defendants' transactions cost Glitnir more than $2bn
      and contributed significantly to the Bank's collapse

A full copy of the New York court action will be available at
www.glitnirbank.com.

The litigation is being piloted by Glitnir's Winding-Up Board,
which was appointed by the Icelandic Court to supervise the liquidation of
the Bank. It follows a thorough forensic review of Glitnir's management and
transactions in the years leading up to the Bank's collapse.

On behalf of Glitnir's creditors, the Winding-Up Board is
determined to pursue recovery of assets looted from Glitnir by Jóhannesson
and the other Defendants, and believes that the New York court is the most
suitable forum for doing so. Central to the case is the $1bn bond issue sold
in September 2007 to New York investors who were misled as to Glitnir's
financial exposures. Around 90% of Glitnir Bank's estimated 9,000 creditors
are thought to be based outside Iceland.

"There is evidence supporting the allegation that Glitnir Bank
was robbed from the inside," said Steinunn Gubjartsdóttir, chair of the
Glitnir Winding-Up Board. "Today's legal action is a positive step aimed at
making accountable the small number of people whose intent or negligence
contributed significantly to Glitnir's demise."

Glitnir has already filed separate litigation against some of
the individual Defendants in Iceland. It has also made a relevant submission
to Iceland's Special Prosecutor and Icelandic authorities. The Icelandic
Government has also been notified about today's litigation.

Last month, a report from Iceland's Special Investigation
Commission ruled that Iceland's financial collapse was partly caused by the
disproportionate exercise influenced over the country's banks by a small
group of businessmen, including Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson.

Glitnir Bank's Winding-Up Board's legal representation is
Steptoe & Johnson, LLP (New York) and Slaughter and May (London).

The Glitnir Winding-Up Board will hold a press conference
today at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, 2nd floor, Room D, at 14.30 Reykjavik
time (15.30 London time, 10.30 New York time). The press conference will be
convened by Steinunn Gubjartsdóttir and Pall Eiriksson of the Winding-Up
Board.

A telephone dial-in to the press conference will be made
available for the international media. The dial-in is +354-7557755, and the
access code is: 5155200.

Notes to editors:

The legal claim:

A full copy of the New York court action will be available at
www.glitnirbank.com. It accuses Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, who controlled
around 39% of Glitnir's shares via various entities, of seizing effective
executive control of the Bank in April 2007, by ousting Glitnir's directors
and senior management and replacing them with Welding, Jonsson and other
accomplices. Jóhannesson and the other named Defendants then used their
control over the Bank to issue massive loans to, and fund a series of
transactions with, other companies they controlled. In doing so, they flouted
the Bank's internal risk policies, as well as Iceland's laws and financial
regulations governing large exposure to connected parties.

To finance these diversions, the individual Defendants relied
heavily on funds which Glitnir raised in the United States throughout 2007
and, in particular, through the $1bn sale of Bonds to investors located in
New York and elsewhere in the United States in September 2007. The extent of
Glitnir's financial exposure to Jóhannesson and the companies and individuals
who were connected to him was fraudulently hidden from US investors at the
time of this fundraising.

In the event, Jóhannesson's looting of Glitnir Bank failed to
save Baugur, his own company, from failure; nor have the sums the individual
Defendants siphoned from Glitnir ever been repaid to the Bank. The
transactions made no economic sense for Glitnir, and put the Bank - and, by
extension, its creditors - in extreme financial peril. Having depleted
Glitnir's cash reserves, the individual Defendants left the Bank heavily
exposed to the global credit crunch which struck Iceland's markets during the
summer of 2007, and contributed significantly to its eventual bankruptcy.

Jóhannesson and the other individual Defendants could not have
succeeded in their schemes without the complicity of PwC. PwC knew about
Glitnir's irregular related party exposures, reviewed and signed off on
Glitnir financial statements which grossly misrepresented these exposures,
and facilitated Glitnir's fraudulent fundraising in New York.

    The Defendants in the case are:

    - Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, former Executive Chairman of Baugur;
      former Chairman of FL Group; principal shareholder in both companies
      and, through them, controlled around 39% of shares in Glitnir Bank

    - Thorsteinn Jonsson, former Chairman of the Board, Glitnir
      Bank; also former vice-Chairman of FL Group

    - Jón Sigursson, former Director of Glitnir Bank; also former
      Deputy CEO of FL Group

    - Lárus Welding, former CEO and Chairman of the Risk
      Committee, Glitnir Bank

    - Pálmi Haraldsson, former Director, Glitnir Bank

    - Hannes Smarason, former CEO of FL Group

    - Ingibjörg Stefanía Pálmadóttir, wife of Jón Ásgeir
      Jóhannesson; former Director, Baugur

    - PwC, auditor to Glitnir Bank; performed reviews and issued
      letters on which investors relied in connection with the September
      2007 New York bond offering

Freezing Orders

Separate to the New York litigation, the Winding-Up Board of
Glitnir Bank secured on May 11, 2010 an order from the High Court in London,
freezing the worldwide assets of Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson. Freezing orders have
also been applied for in the Icelandic court against Jóhannesson, Welding and
Pálmi Haraldsson, former Director, Glitnir Bank.

Glitnir Bank

Glitnir Bank, a public company, was until its collapse a
full-service bank, providing corporate banking, investment banking, capital
markets, investment management and retail banking services. It had offices in
ten countries, including Manhattan, and its market capitalisation once stood
at more than EUR4bn.

Hit by the global financial crisis in 2007-08, and financially
weakened by the fraudulent transactions of the individual Defendants, Glitnir
declared bankruptcy in October 2008. It is now the subject of a
court-supervised moratorium proceeding in Iceland, under the supervision of
Iceland's Financial Supervisory Authority and a Resolution Committee. An
Icelandic court has appointed a Winding-Up Board, headed by Steinunn
Gubjartsdóttir, to supervise the liquidation of the Bank's assets. The
Winding-Up Board and Resolution Committee have authorised this litigation.

Glitnir's Legal Representation

Glitnir is represented in the New York action by Michael
Campion Miller, Robbin Itkin, Evan Glassman and Katherine Piper from Steptoe
& Johnson, LLP. In London, Glitnir is represented by Slaughter and May.

    For more information, please contact:
    Rory Godson, Powerscourt (London)
    Tel: +44-20-7250-1446
    Rory.godson@powerscourtmedia.com

    Conal Walsh, Powerscourt (London)
    Tel: +44-20-7250-1446
    Conal.walsh@powerscourtmedia.com

    Lisa Kavanagh, Powerscourt (London)
    Tel: +44-20-7250-1446
    Lisa.kavanagh@powerscourtmedia.com

    John Dudzinsky, APCO Worldwide (New York)
    Tel: +1-212-300-1817
    jdudzinsky@apcoworldwide.com

For more information, please contact: Rory Godson, Powerscourt (London), Tel: +44-20-7250-1446, Rory.godson at powerscourtmedia.com ; Conal Walsh, Powerscourt (London), Tel: +44-20-7250-1446, Conal.walsh at powerscourtmedia.com ; Lisa Kavanagh, Powerscourt (London), Tel: +44-20-7250-1446, Lisa.kavanagh at powerscourtmedia.com ; John Dudzinsky, APCO Worldwide (New York), Tel: +1-212-300-1817, jdudzinsky at apcoworldwide.com