Quote from RenkoTrades:
The fed is a private group. Families and Trusts own the shares of the various fed regional branches. This has already been documented in past congressional testimony, speeches on the House and Senate Floor, and GAO reports.
Every request by elected members of the US Government has been denied to have a complete current accounting for who owns all privately held branch shares. The Fed even acknowledges the regional branches are privately owned with authority above the US Government.
That's not entirely true. As Moynihan said, you're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.
The regional Federal Reserve Banks are not privately owned but are part of the government. There are private banks that have chosen to be associated with the Federal Reserve system. But these are not the same as the Regional Federal Reserve Banks.
from Wikipedia: " In the current system, private banks are for-profit businesses but government regulation places restrictions on what they can do. The
Federal Reserve System is a part of government that regulates the private banks. The balance between privatization and government involvement is also seen in the structure of the system. Private banks elect members of the board of directors at their regional Federal Reserve Bank while the members of the Board of Governors are selected by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The private banks give input to the government officials about their economic situation and these government officials use this input in Federal Reserve policy decisions. In the end, private banking businesses are able to run a profitable business while the U.S. government, through the Federal Reserve System, oversees and regulates the activities of the private banks."
(underlining in the above quote is mine.)
And once again, let me emphasize that shareholder owned private banks that have chosen to be associated with the Federal reserve
system are
required to contribute capital to the Federal Reserve System via share purchase, but these shares are nothing like the ordinary shares issued by a corporation. In return for the use of their capital, the banks that own shares in the federal reserve system receive a dividend of a few percent annually. After operating expenses and dividends paid to private member banks, and a small reserve amount retained by the Federal Reserve, profits of the Federal reserve banks flow to the U.S. Treasury, not to private banks.