CNBC has examined the financial information of officials in protest that the Federal Reserve owns and trades individual securities, and the Fed itself bought them last year, including President Jerome Powell. We found three people who had the same type of assets as.

None of these holdings or transactions appeared to violate the Fed’s code of conduct. But they question the Fed’s conflict of interest policy and the oversight of central bank officials.

  • Powell owns $ 1.25 to $ 2.5 million in municipal bonds in a family trust and is reportedly unable to manage them. They represented only a small part of his declared total wealth. The bonds were purchased before 2019, but were held when the Federal Reserve bought $ 21.3 billion from Muni in 2016, including Illinois bonds purchased through a family trust. From Illinois.
  • Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Governor Eric Rosengren held between $ 151,000 and $ 800,000 in real estate investment trusts holding mortgage-backed securities. He made 37 individual transactions on four REITs, and the Fed bought about $ 700 billion worth of MBS.
  • Richmond Fed Chairman Thomas Barkin held between $ 1.35 million and $ 3 million in individual corporate bonds purchased before 2020. This includes Pepsi, Home Depot and Eli Lily bonds. Last year, the Federal Reserve opened a corporate bond buying facility to buy $ 46.5 billion in corporate bonds.

Among these questions: The Fed asked authorities to own, buy and sell the same assets that the Fed itself bought last year when it significantly expanded the types of assets it bought in response to a pandemic. Should it be banned?

The US Federal Reserve’s own code of conduct avoids transactions or other actions that could indicate that officials “may even appear to be a conflict between the interests of individuals, the interests of the system, and the interests of the public.” You must be prudent. “

In response to questions from CNBC posed during the investigation, a Fed spokesperson released a statement Thursday, and Powell last week reviewed the Fed’s ethical rules on “authorized financial holdings and activities by Fed officials “. Said ordered.

A Fed spokesperson told CNBC that Powell had no say in buying individual Fed bonds or investing in family trusts. Federal Reserve ethics officials determined the holdings did not violate government rules.

Birkin declined to comment.

Rosengren announced that he would sell his individual positions and stop trading while he was president. Dallas Fed Chairman Robert Kaplan, who has aggressively traded millions of dollars in individual stocks, has also said he will no longer trade and sell individual positions. But he said his profession did not violate federal ethical rules.

A spokesperson for Rosengren told CNBC: “We have confirmed that his personal savings and investment transactions comply with those permitted by federal ethical rules.”

But Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Market, said the rules had to be changed if some of those Fed actions didn’t break the rules.

“To think that such a deal would be accepted, as appears to be permitted by current Fed policy, only underscores that Fed policy is woefully inadequate,” Kelleher told CNBC. Said.

Trade between Rosengren and Kaplan did not take place during the so-called blackout period, but when Fed officials were not allowed to speak publicly about monetary policy and trade, Kelleher was in crisis like last year. Said. This is because Fed officials are constantly discussing and formulating policies in response to rapid events.