Greenspan, Rubin and Prince to testify on financial crisis

A committee created by the US Congress to investigate the roots of the financial crisis that beset the country, and subsequently snowballed into a global crisis, is set to question former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, former Citigroup Inc CEO Chuck Prince and former treasury secretary Robert Rubin. Their testimony, before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, will commence tomorrow.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, set up in May 2009, is investigating the bank's role in spreading trillions of dollars in risky mortgage debt through the banking system.

This will be the commission's first ever hearing.

Three days of testimony are meant to provide a firsthand account of decisions that inflated the mortgage bubble and triggered the financial crisis.

Prince, who stood down from the bank following revelations of the need to take $17 billion in writedowns in November 2007, has remained largely silent on the events that led up to his resignation and the decisions taken by him that contributed to the bank's considerable problems after his exit.

In total, Citigroup booked more than $100 billion of writedowns and credit charges during the financial crisis as a result of its exposure to sub-prime mortgages, leveraged loans and collateralised debt obligations.