Federal Reserve Ordered to Turn Over Data on Bailout Loans

Federal Reserve Ordered to Turn Over Data on Bailout Loans - 8-26-2009

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Federal Reserve Ordered to Turn Over Data on Bailout Loans
Mark Hamblett

New York Law Journal. August 26, 2009
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EXCERPT: The Federal Reserve has been ordered by a U.S. judge to release records about emergency loans to investment banks and other financial institutions during the height of the economic meltdown. Southern District of New York Judge Loretta Preska granted a request from the Bloomberg organization under the Freedom of Information Act in Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08 Civ. 9595. Rejecting the claim of the Federal Reserve that the material was exempt from disclosure, Preska gave the board of governors until Monday to produce the records. Her decision contrasted with one made by fellow Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in July. In Fox News Network v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 09 Civ. 272, Hellerstein ruled that 6,186 pages of information on loans the Federal Reserve made in 2007 and 2008 to stem the credit crisis were exempt under the act. Two Bloomberg reporters last year requested information on who borrowed money from the Federal Reserve, how much was borrowed and what kinds of collateral was involved. Preska, in a 47-page opinion released Monday, first found that "the Board improperly withheld agency records in response to a FOIA request by conducting an inadequate search. 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(4)(B)." But the larger issue for the court involved records that the board did locate as responsive to Bloomberg's request but ones it argued were covered by exemptions 4 and 5 of the act. The reporters sought 231 pages of "Remaining Term Reports" that detailed the names of the borrowers, the originating Federal Reserve Board district, the amounts of the loans, the type of lending program, and loan origination and maturity dates. The board of governors, claiming that releasing the reports would cause severe financial damage to its borrowers, said Exemption 4 applied.

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