Executives of 3 major banks are planned to undertake questioning by a Senate panel this week on bank ownership of physical products such as oil, natural gas and aluminum & the impact those holdings have on customers, industry & commodities markets.

Jacques Gabillon, head of Goldman Sachs' (GS) global commodities principal investment group, Simon Greenshields, global co-head of commodities at Morgan Stanley (MS), & John Anderson, co-head of global commodities at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are slated to testify at the 2-day hearing of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation.

Various other scheduled witnesses include 2 government regulatory authorities, in addition to representatives of Metro International Trade Services, a global warehouse facility operator, Harbor Aluminum Intelligence Unit, a company involved in aluminum industry analysis & outlook, and also Novelis, a leader in folded aluminum products.

‘Over the last 5 years, our largest Bank’s & their holding business have become deeply associated with a vast array of physical commodity activities in ways that position risks to the United State financial system, U.S. commodity markets, UNITED STATE Businesses and also families that use commodities & U.S. taxpayers,’ said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the subcommittee.

The goal, he included, ‘is to provide facts that have been missing out on from public debate about the nature and extent of bank involvement with physical commodities and also the impact & repercussions of that involvement.’

Citing recent increases in bank ownership and trading in commodities, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the panel's ranking minority member, said the Thursday-Friday hearing would certainly clarify ‘The Extent to which this involvement is appropriate for banks to engage in.’

Adhering to a two-year Us senate examination, the hearing marks the most up to date in a series of procedures in which the subcommittee focused an at-times unflattering light on Wall Street methods, such as the so-called London Whale trading episode that roiled financial markets and cost JPMorgan $6.2 billion in losses.

After other investigations, subcommittee members have additionally questioned execs of tech huge Apple (AAPL) and also construction equipment maker Caterpillar (FELINE) & various other UNITED STATE firms about overseas strategies the companies used off to decrease their corporate tax bills.

This week's proceeding is expected to be the last chaired by Levin, who did not seek a new term throughout the midterm congressional elections, which culminated earlier this month with the GOP winning control of the senate.