Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will testify on rating agency Moody's to a crisis panel looking into the role of rating firms in the financial crisis, a media report said.
According to the report by the Wall Street Journal, "The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released a witness list focused on bond-rating firm Moody's Corp for its June 2 panel on the role of rating firms in the financial crisis."
The witness list features Warren Buffett, the promoter of Berkshire Hathaway, which is longtime shareholder in Moody's, the report added.
According to recent filings, Berkshire has reduced its stake as various regulatory inquiries and a slowdown in the business of rating lucrative structured bonds has taken a toll.
The panel is also calling six current and former Moody's executives to testify, including Brian Clarkson, the company's former president who oversaw its once-rapid growth in rating mortgage bonds and other structured products.
Moody's chairman and chief executive Raymond McDaniel will testify alongside Buffett, the WSJ report said.
The Moody's ratings unit and McGraw-Hill Cos' Standard & Poor's unit have often shared the stage in Congressional hearings over why they rated mortgage bonds with top marks that underestimated the chances of a housing-price downturn.
The FCIC, a bipartisan 10-person panel created by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial meltdown, is led by former California Treasurer Phil Angelides.
The report quoted a Moody's spokesman as saying that, "We support the FCIC's important work of understanding the causes of the financial crisis. We appreciate the opportunity to speak on the role of credit ratings and provide our views and analytical insights."
Last month, Moody's had handed over documents in response to a subpoena from the commission. It was the first such subpoena handed out by the commission, which has also been requesting documents from other rating and financial services firms.
