With Citi Said to Mull Merger Fed Puts It on Board Like SVB While Claiming No Records

With Citi Said to Mull Merger Fed Puts It on Board Like SVB While Claiming No Records by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack FEDERAL COURT, March 31 –   How automatic do banks now think merger approvals are? You can never be too sure, apparently. With Citigroup in the news mulling a regional bank acquisition - and CEO Jane Fraser denying it - the Federal Reserve put chosen this moment to put Citi's Fraser on its Federal Advisory Council. Conflict of interest, anyone? A (much) smaller bank, Stock Yards Bancorp,  announced a proposal to buy Field & Main bank and its holding company - but has yet to apply to the Federal Reserve.  This while Stocks Yards' CEO is on a board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis (just as Silicon Valley Bank was on the FRB of SF, until it all failed). On February 13 Fair Finance Watch filed challenges to the deal with the FDIC - and with the Federal Reserve, opposing any waiver. On March 20 - more than a month later - the Fed Secretary wrote that he was giving a waiver, and to request any records under FOIA. But the Fed has already told Inner City Press it HAS not records about the very time of board interlock - between bank and Reserve Bank - which is cites here. Inner City Press has asked for expedited treatment. But now the Fed has began saying it does not even know of its own Additional Information letters sent to merging banks. We'll have more on all this. *** Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron. Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com SDNY Press Room 500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station, NY NY 10013 Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540 Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.  Copyright 2006-2026 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com