It’s an important day for the 8,000 customers of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man), with the drama of the bank’s collapse continuing on two separate stages.

A winding up petition is down to be heard at the High Court in Douglas this morning, while government officials are in London for top level talks with the United Kingdom Treasury and the UK Financial Services Authority.

The board of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) and the Financial Supervision Commission, are due to seek a winding up order, although senior Manx government figures have made it clear efforts are being made internationally to prevent the bank going into liquidation.

This is what Treasury Minister Allan Bell said on the subject in Tynwald early yesterday evening, when the court voted overwhelmingly in favour of further enhancements to the Isle of Man depositors' compensation scheme (audio file attached):

The delegation in London - chief secretary Mary Williams, chief financial officer Mark Shimmin and head of the FSC John Aspden – will express concern over the situation being faced by customers of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man), who saw their deposits caught in the freezing by the UK government of Icelandic bank assets.

It’s understood there are hopes the talks might lead to substantial assets trapped in Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander’s London bank being released.

At the same time, if a winding up order was issued, the newly enhanced compensation scheme would kick in, under which individual depositors could claim up to ?50,000.

Another possible scenario would be depositors asking the High Court to defer consideration of the winding up order, while the political discussions are continuing.

The 8,000 customers with Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) have deposits totalling over ?800 million.