Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Financial Crisis

[pioneer]

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is to face questions later about the role of credit rating agencies in the financial crisis.

Mr Buffett will testify before the US Congress's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

He will appear with the chief of rating agency Moody's, Raymond W McDaniel.

The rating agencies have been criticised for conflicts of interest because their fees are paid by the banks whose deals they rate.

Billions of dollars of complex debts that were given the highest "AAA" rating by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, went bad during the financial crisis.