Appeal Denied: Fed Must Finally Reveal To Which Banks It Lent Trillions of Dollars

Bloomberg reports that the Fed's appeal not to release loan information has been denined. The Federal Reserve now has 5 days to disclose details of emergency loans made to banks in 2008.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to hide the records from the public.

Matt Winkler, Bloomberg editors, said: “The Federal Reserve forgot that it is the central bank for the people of the United States and not a private academy where decisions of great importance may be withheld from public scrutiny,” “The Fed must be accountable to Congress, especially in disclosing what it does with the people’s money.”


"The justices today left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought by Bloomberg News’s parent company, Bloomberg LP. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the nation’s largest commercial banks, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

"The order marks the first time a court has forced the Fed to reveal the names of banks that borrowed from its oldest lending program, the 98-year-old discount window. The disclosures, together with details of six bailout programs released by the central bank in December under a congressional mandate, would give taxpayers insight into the Fed’s unprecedented $3.5 trillion effort to stem the 2008 financial panic".
"Under the trial judge’s order, the Fed must reveal 231 pages of documents related to borrowers in April and May 2008, along with loan amounts. News Corp.’s Fox News is pressing a bid for 6,186 pages of similar information on loans made from August 2007 to November 2008".