Monday sees the launch of a Dutch inquiry into the causes of the credit crisis. Over the coming weeks Socialist Party MP Jan de Wit will head a team of MPs to question key players from the financial world.

First in the hot seat is Coen Teulings, head of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. He will be followed by former finance ministers and banking executives Onno Ruding and Gerrit Zalm, Dutch central bank chief Nout Wellink, plus other leading economists and bankers.

Fortis boss Maurice Lippens and the head of Iceland’s central bank Davíð Oddsson have refused to appear before the commission.

The inquiry, due to report its findings in late March or early April, aims to lay bare the causes of the crisis. In a second phase, the eight MPs will go on to look into the state aid granted to banks and the nationalisation of the ABN-Amro and Fortis banks. The findings of this more politically sensitive stage of the investigation will probably be presented in the autumn.

Nout Wellink (ANP)