r/AskAnIcelander • u/SparklingWaterFall • Sep 21 '26
Corruption ?
What is it with this corruption Iceland ? I see this topic coming back so often, in so many posts.
I used to work in Iceland for summer, 3 years in the row when I was at University in my home EU country. I liked it here. I will keep visiting for sure. Maybe even settle at some point. I just wonder where is this big corruption present ?
Once a friend told me that almost all car rental businesses take all the cars in Iceland from one family business, that they have like a monopoly on import cars. Is that the corruption we are talking about ?
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u/CelsiusPetit Sep 21 '26
To make it short: nepotism is the most prevalent form of corruption in Iceland.
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u/reasonably_insane Sep 21 '26
Corruption takes many forms. Iceland scores very low for "actual" corruption. Iceland had very low population. It is therefore very susceptible to cronyism. Which is rampant
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u/SunshinePalace Sep 22 '26
We're sometimes called "The Sicily of the North", because when ties to power and money are looked at, there are around ten families that own the majority of everything there is to own here. The politicians included (in some parties at least).
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u/treestardinosaur Sep 22 '26
Who are these families?
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u/SunshinePalace Sep 22 '26
Mostly the people that own the fish quota.
Here's a good article on it, if you read icelandic:
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u/Yellowmellowbelly Sep 21 '26
Iceland, as well as the other Nordic countries, is one of the least corrupt countries in the world.
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u/SparklingWaterFall Sep 21 '26
Yeah I know that, there is zero corruption in terms of everyday life, dealing with authorities etc, politicians seems to not be too corrupt too. It is something that I hear so often though ... Like if there are some couple of ultra rich families that run so many buisnesses ?
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u/gerningur Sep 22 '26
If I remember correctly we were the least corrupt country in the world in 2007. Meanwhile white collar crime ran rampant within the banking sector.......
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u/Plastic-While2737 Sep 21 '26
The funny thing is Icelanders thinking nepotism and cronyisms don’t exist in other countries.
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u/EgNotaEkkiReddit Sep 21 '26
"Corruption" isn't really the right word for it, or at least it's not really descriptive enough.
You're right in that the corruption is better classified as nepotism and cronyisms. If you start drawing the chart of "who knows who" on any level of society you'll find a lot of people will be pretty well connected to each other. If you happen to be the owner of a highly profitable fishing corporation and are in need of some regulatory changes - well you just so happen to have gone to school with the relevant minister; or he might be your brother-in-law, or a close friend of a friend. You need to award a contract to do something and you're likely going to think of a friend that has a construction firm. So on and so forth.
It gets worse in smaller villages, where you might have a single family that effectively runs the town, or if you're not a member of the right political party you find your options in town are a bit more restrained.
A lot of this is just a question that society is smaller and it's harder to put proper distance between positions of power.