US Fed maintains secrecy on banks bailout

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115933§ionid=3510203


The United States Federal Reserve is making an effort to block a court decision on divulging the government's trillion dollar program to save major US banks.

The US central bank has asked the Court of Appeals in Manhattan to refrain from revealing the 'secret identities' of the country's main creditors in a move against the Freedom of Information Act, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

In their appeal to the court, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System wrote, “Confidentiality is essential to the success of the board's statutory mission to maintain the health of the nation's financial system and conduct monetary policy.”

“The board's ability to administer lending programs crucial to maintaining national financial and economic stability will be severely undermined” if banks refuse to go to the regional Federal Reserve Banks “for their funding needs, particularly in time of economic crisis,” Assistant US Attorney General Tony West and Fed lawyer Richard Ashton noted.

Bloomberg News sued the Federal Reserve under the Freedom of Information Act in 2008, after the central bank refused to disclose the banking documents.

“Bloomberg has been trying for almost two years to break down a brick wall of secrecy in order to vindicate the public's right to learn basic information,” Thomas Golden, an attorney for the company said.

The Fed stirred the media frenzy by seeking to block the details of the $2 trillion US economic stimulus program that kept banks afloat after Lehman Brothers liquidated in September 2008.