Three top Wall Street figures at the centre of the US mortgage crisis on Friday faced a barrage of criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who accused them of raking in excessive pay packages while their companies suffered billions of dollars of losses.

Appearing before the House oversight and government reform committee, Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide, the largest US mortgage lender, Stan O’Neal, former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, and Chuck Prince, the former chief executive of Citigroup, were forced to defend their compensation as fair and in line with investors’ interests.