Nout Wellink, the president of DNB, the Dutch central bank, says he can see no reason to apologise about his role in the financial crisis. He made his first appearance today in front of the parliamentary commission investigating the causes of the financial crisis.

Referring to the crisis as being "born and raised as a many-headed monster in the United States" he remarked that Dutch bank ABN Amro had been a victim of other financial institutions which took "irresponsibly large risks", made enormous profits and could therefore "buy up the rest of the world". ABN Amro was bought up by a consortium of foreign banks in 2007 but had to be rescued by the Dutch state when the crisis broke.

Mr Wellink recalled the behaviour of hedge fund TCI which, as a shareholder in ABN Amro, demanded its breakup and threatened the DNB with a 10 billion euro claim for damages if it blocked the sale of the bank. He argued for a limit to be introduced to the DNB's liability as supervisory institution for the banking sector, a move backed by the Christian Democrats, the conservative VVD and the Socialist Party but not by Finance Minister Wouter Bos.
 

He told the De Wit commission that before the crisis the DNB had repeatedly warned about banks taking increasing risks but that no one could have anticipated a global credit crisis. Asked whether politicians had heeded his warnings, he commented "It would sound pathetic to portray myself as a voice in the wilderness."
 

There has been much criticism of Nout Wellink's and the DNB's role in the crisis and the commission will be questioning him again on Thursday.

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