Court Orders Federal Reserve to Release Bailout Documents to Bloomberg News
Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Federal Reserve, which has long enjoyed a tight cloak of secrecy around its financial decision making, lost a key ruling in federal court on Monday that will require it to turn over documents detailing which banks received emergency loans during the height of the financial crisis in 2008. The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News after its Freedom of Information Act requests were denied by the national bank, which insisted the public disclosure of loan records would harm borrowers’ competitive positions and endanger the economy.
“The Federal Reserve has to be accountable for the decisions that it makes,” said Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, after the ruling. “It’s one thing to say that the Federal Reserve is an independent institution. It’s another thing to say that it can keep us all in the dark.”
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska gave the Fed five days to turn over documents to Bloomberg.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Court Orders Fed to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans (by Mark Pittman, Bloomberg)
Bloomberg Wins Access to Fed Reserve Loan Records (by Annie Youderian, Courthouse News Service)
Bloomberg v. Federal Reserve (U.S. District Court Southern District of New York) (PDF)
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