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Tag Archive: Federal Reserve

Bank fees are up, but disclosure is sorely lacking

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As banks continue to raise their fees for consumer accounts, and free checking appears to be going the way of the dodo, banks have a decidedly spotty record on clearly disclosing these fees to their customers--even though they are required to do so by law.

A survey out this week from the site BankRate.com says virtually every way a bank can charge money is up. Sixty percent more noninterest accounts carry fees and balance requirements than they did last year. ATM fees are at an all-time high for the seventh consecutive year. Maintenance fees for checking accounts have increased ...

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Nation’s biggest banks benefit most from Fed program

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TALF Data recently disclosed by the Federal Reserve shows that one of its emergency lending programs, the Term Asset-Backed loan Facility or TALF, led to the purchasing of assets from 56 organizations--among them seven were also aided by the biggest bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Those seven financial firms benefited from $25 billion--or 35 percent--of the $71 billion in loans issued through through TALF. More than two years after the financial crisis was touched off by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when Congress, the Bush administration and independent agencies like the Federal Reserve took unprecedented actions to prop up bankers, brokers and other financial firms, the public is only now beginning to see detailed information on actions the government took that were considered secret before. While the Federal Reserve has released transaction level detail for TALF purchases, something that was ordered by Congress, it has withheld much of the underlying data for other emergency programs; Bloomberg.com reported that the Fed did not release information on the underlying securities purchased through the Term Securities Lending Facility program (TSLF) or the Term Auction Facility (TAF).

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Federal Reserve Loan Program Allowed Bank of America to Benefit Twice

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Bank of America was one of several banks that was able to play both sides of a Federal Reserve program launched during the 2008 financial crisis. While Bank of America was selling its assets to firms obtaining loans through the Fed program, the investment firm BlackRock—partially owned by Bank of America—was potentially turning a profit by using those loans to buy assets similar to those sold by Bank of America. In November 2008, the Federal Reserve announced that, in addition to a series of lending programs intended to keep both the U.S. and world economies liquid, it would begin issuing federally backed loans to entities willing to purchase securities from the troubled financial industry through a program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility or TALF.

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CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

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