Gerald Corrigan, chairman of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, has defended his bank's 2001 debt-swap deal with Greece that may have allowed the country to mask the extent of the country's ongoing crisis. With the Greek situation threatening contagion to the entire eurozone, Corrigan was unrepentant when he appeared before a UK Government Treasury Select Committee that Goldman's currency swap deals entered into with Greece could have added to the country's debt crisis - adding that he thought it was possible that the UK was involved in similar deals with other banks.

Mr Corrigan told the panel of MPs enquiring into the global banking sector that the deal was not solely limited to Goldman Sachs and Greece, but it did contribute to the country's current debt crisis which, it is claimed, allowed them to mask additional borrowing.

"It is true that a family of currency swaps that were entered into jointly by Goldman Sachs and Greece in the late 90s and the early part of the 2000s, were of a nature that they did produce a small, but not insignificant, reduction in Greece's deficit and debt at that time," said Corrigan, who - under pressure from MPs - conceded that "with the benefit of hindsight... the standards of transparency could have been and probably should have been higher."

Nonetheless, Corrigan remained robust in his defense, insisting the strategy pursued by Goldman Sachs in 2001 - but which is now prohibited since an EU directive in 2007 - was in line with the standards expected at the time. "However," he said, "it is very clear today, based on the investigation that I have done over the past few days, those transactions were very much consistent with the standards of behaviour of measurements used by the European community."