Executives from New Century Mortgage Corporation refused to testify at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the widening crisis in the subprime mortgage market, the panel said today.
However, executives from four other major subprime lenders will appear at tomorrow's hearing, chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a statement.
Meanwhile Morgan Stanley chief financial officer David Sidwell said the recent deterioration seen in US subprime mortgage markets has not yet spread to other debt markets as feared by many investors.
Mr Sidwell, speaking to analysts after the bank reported a 60 per cent jump in first-quarter earnings, said Morgan generated record trading results despite widespread worries that subprime market woes would spill over to prime mortgages and other areas of the business.
And though the second fiscal quarter is only three weeks old, Morgan Stanley said debt markets remain healthy.
"At this time we believe this could be a reasonably limited event, as we have not seen any signs that the subprime deterioration has spread to other parts of the market," Sidwell said. "At this early point in the second quarter, we remain reasonably optimistic."