So who is responsible for the financial crisis?

The Guardian's City editor Julia Finch picks out the 25 who were at the heart of the meltdown.

The list is headed by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan who allowed the housing bubble to develop as a result of his low interest rates, who failed to regulate mortgage lending, who defended the derivatives business which mushroomed under his regime and who backed sub-prime lending and urged homebuyers to swap fixed-rate mortgages for variable rate deals, which left borrowers in the dog house when rates rose. Other include Bill Clinton who repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which ensured a complete separation between commercial banks and investment banks, and ushered in the period of the super-bank for which we are all now paying a price, George Bush, Gordon Brown, former Citi chief Chuck Prince, former Merrill Lynch boss Stan O'Neal and AIG's Hank Greenberg.

But of course, one of the biggest culprit's was the public with so many people failing to realise they were borrowing more than they could afford to repay.