Former Citigroup mortgage executive says he warned Rubin, others about crash starting in 2006

Fmr. Citi exec warned Rubin about mortgage risk

WASHINGTON — A former executive of Citigroup Inc. is telling a panel investigating the roots of the financial crisis that he warned former chairman Robert Rubin and other bank leaders about the coming mortgage crisis back in 2006.

Richard Bowen says other Citigroup executives were violating the bank’s own risk management standards starting in 2006. He says he discovered in the middle of that year that over 60 percent of the mortgages bought and resold by subprime subsidiary Citifinancial Mortgage were defective. Bowen was chief underwriter for the division.

Bowen says he issued many warnings to management about the mortgage risk starting in 2006, and e-mailed Rubin in November 2007.

Bowen’s testimony is part of three days of hearings by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.