Quote Originally Posted by JBmurc View Post
=== Who are the ten major shareholders of the Federal Reserve Bank System?

One only has to read the law to come up with the answer.

The Federal Reserve System is run by the Board of Governors. --> There are no shares and absolutely no mechanism for private ownership at this level. <-- Board members are appointed by the prez and confirmed by congress. Board members are also forbiddent to have a financial stake in any bank or other financial institution. Congress is charged with oversight of the system (though at a high level).

The law is set up where shares can only be owned by member banks within the Federal Reserve branches. But these are not your typical corporate shares that entitle legal ownership. Rather, they bestow participation rights within the branch. Regardless the number of shares they own, each bank gets only one vote toward the branch Board of Directors who actually run the place. Only member domestic banks can own shares. No individuals or foreign entities.

The shares also do not entitle the bank to any profits of the branch bank. The shares do receive a standard 6% dividend. Otherwise, all Fed profit is turned over to the U.S. Treasury at the end of the year.

So who are the top shareholders. Since the law stipulates that the number of shares must be in proportion to the bank size, just look at the 10 biggest banks for the answer.

The top 3 shareholders ar:

1. Bank of America
2. Morgan Chase
3. Citibank

You can find the rest of the list at http://www.usabanks.org/card.htm?gclid=C…

=== why are they important?

Well, obviously the 10 biggest banks play an important role in the economy.

This involvement of private banks in the day to day running of the branches was an important compromise in 1913 between those that wanted 100% private central bank (the republicans) and those that wanted 100% public (the democrats).

Today we have a 100% public government agency at the top (The Board of Governments) being responsible for monetary policy and running of the system. And branches that are run like private corporations carrying out day-to-day functions
JB: Thanks for that clarification, and I am sure we have all benefited from your deeper research as to how the Fed is governed. It just seems that the anonymous "internet poster" had a particular prejudice to push.

Should be an exciting investment week.