| Federal Reserve Says No
Records on Conflicts Despite
Silicon Valley Bank on FRBSF Board
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
FEDERAL
COURT,
Jan 28 – The Federal Reserve
Board, currently proclaiming
its independence, claims it
has no records at all about
considering or trying to
address the conflict of
interest of having banks on
the boards of directors of its
Federal Reserve Banks.
This
despite the obvious conflict
and controversy of having had
Silicon Valley Bank on the
board of the FRBSF. Inner City
Press on January 28 filed this
FOIA appeal:
On behalf of Fair
Finance Watch and Inner City
Press and in my personal
capacity, this is an immediate
FOIA appeal of the Board's
January 28 denial of our
January 12 FOIA request for
Fulton Financial's branch
closing answer to the AI
request they put it in a
public exhibit - precisely the
type of information made
public after FOIA request in
Fifth Third - Comerica, after
an identical request, and a
directly challenge, to be
presented to the Governors, to
the Denial's statement that
"With respect to
item 2 of your request, staff
searched Board records but did
not locate any documents
responsive to this portion of
your request. Therefore, we
are unable to provide you with
any responsive
information."
Item 2 was "[2] all records
reflecting FRS including FRB
of Philadelphia considering of
possible conflicts of
interesting [sic] in having
Fulton’s CEO on the FRB of
Philadelphia’s Board of
Directors while the FRB of
Philadelphia considers
Fulton’s merger applications
including deciding how to
treat adverse comments and
whether to sent [sic] copies
of AI letters and allow
withholding of answers to AI
letters. The request, for
context, includes FRS
consideration of bank and bank
holding company respresention
[sic] on the boards of the
other Reserve
Banks."
The item /
request obviously includes
Reserve Banks beyond FRB of
Philadelphia.
Inner City Press understands
from sources that the FRS has
internally sought to address
criticism of having had
Silicon Valley Bank on the
board of the FRBSF, and SVB's
subsequent
failure. To say
there are no record is not
credible - this appeal must be
presented directly to the
Governors.
On
December 29, OceanFirst, which
settled charges of redlining
earlier this decade, announced
it will apply to buy Flushing
Bank in New York.
OceanFirst was on the board of
the FRB of Philadelphia.
Fair
Finance Watch has opposed it,
in comments filed January 2
with the Federal Reserve Board
which recently allowed a $7
billion mega-merger to proceed
with no Fed review.
OceanFirst's record should
preclude this. and this
proposed deal.
In 2024
OceanFirst made 1399 loans to
whites - and only 94 to
African Americans. In
Connecticut, for example, it
made loans only to whites,
none to African
Americans.
In
Pennsylvania its ratio of
loans to whites to loans to
African Americans was 4.5 to
1. In New York, it was 7 to 1.
This proposal is
being opposed along with the
OCC's moves to exclude the
public, and to withhold
documents under FOIA from
Inner City Press and others
until comment periods close.
On January 7 the
Federal Reserve replied: "The
Federal Reserve Bank of
Phiadelphia received your
correspondence on January 2,
2026, regarding a future
application by OceanFirst to
acquire Flushing Bank. The
Federal Reserve has not yet
received an application by
OceanFirst to acquire Flushing
Bank. Accordingly, no
immediate action will be taken
on the correspondence dated
January 2, 2026. If a filing
is received in the next three
months, your comment may be
considered as part of the
application record for the
filing."
MAY be
considered? Watch this site.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station,
NY NY 10013
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2026 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
