At the parliamentary vote, the 15 opponents of the bill had argued that no clear legal obligation existed for the Icelandic state to pay/guarantee for those lost deposits that "Tryggingarsjóður" potentially could not afford to cover by itself. The government however argued, that if the parliament failed to pass the bill, then Britain and the Netherlands might retaliate by blocking a planned aid package for Iceland from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After unilaterally having amended the bill with a special ceiling for the state's guaranteed repayment, which greatly reduced the risk and liabilities for the Icelandic state, the two government parties voted through the bill in the parliament. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson signed and enacted the bill on 2 September 2009.