Financial-crisis commission calls top bank CEOs to testify

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The federal commission created to investigate the financial meltdown today announced a partial list of witnesses for its first set of hearings on what went wrong.

CEOs confirmed to testify at the Jan. 13 and 14 kick-off hearings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and John Mack of Morgan Stanley.

Expected but not yet confirmed, the commission said, was Brian Moynihan, the newly named CEO of Bank of America Corp.

The first hearings, to be held in Washington, will focus on “causes and [the] current state of the financial crisis,” the commission said.

It’ll be interesting to see the tone the panel adopts in dealing with the bankers. If the hearings are too civil, and none of the panel members chooses to ask tough questions that could make the bankers squirm, the American public might quickly conclude that nothing substantive will come of this investigation. It could become irrelevant before it gets momentum.

Commission Chairman Phil Angelides and Vice Chairman Bill Thomas said in a statement that the 10-member panel would undertake “a thorough inquiry on behalf of the American people.” They said they expected to take testimony from “hundreds of individuals” in 2010.

Congress is expecting a final report from the commission by Dec. 15, 2010.

Go here for a full listing of who’s on the bipartisan panel.

-- Tom Petruno