Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has attacked senior managers and directors at banks for shunning responsibility for risk management.
The broadside was fired in Buffett's annual letter to the shareholders of his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway, which posted a $8.1bn profit for 2009, up from $5bn a year ago.
In the letter, Buffett brands financial institutions as "derelict" if their managers do not take full responsibility for risk control.
He adds the financial consequences on them should be "severe" if governments have to intervene.
Buffett says: "A board of directors of a huge financial institution is derelict if it does not insist that its chief executive bear full responsibility for risk control. If he is incapable of handling that job, he should look for other employment."
He adds the chief executives and directors of failed companies have "largely gone unscathed" and "still live in grand style".
"It is the behaviour of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed. If their institutions and the country are harmed by their recklessness, they should pay a heavy price - one not reimbursable by the companies they've damaged, nor by insurance.
"Chief executives and, in many cases, directors have long benefited from oversized financial carrots; some meaningful sticks now need to be part of their employment picture as well."
Berkshire Hathaway derivative contracts posted gains of $3.62bn throughout 2009, following a strong rebound in world stock markets.
Buffett disclosed also increased stakes in Tesco and drugmaker Sanofi- Aventis. Berkshire's stake in Tesco rose 3.1% to 234.2 million shares, while holdings of Sanofi-Aventis rose about 14% to 25.1 million shares.
