A US Senate panel investigating deals for Enron, the collapsed energy trader, has called for a review of banks and securities firms involved in complex structured finance deals with public companies.

In a report released on Friday, the Senate subcommittee claimed that none of the Enron deals it had investigated could have been completed "without the backing and active participation of a major financial institution willing to facilitate a client's deceptive accounting or tax transactions". The panel claimed that "some major US financial institutions deliberately misused structured finance techniques...and were rewarded with millions of dollars in fees or favourable consideration on other business dealings".