Do eight families make up a "Federal Reserve Cartel" and own the BIS (Bank for International Settlements), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank? No, that's not true: These three institutions are not privately owned and are run by international governments, not eight of the wealthiest families in the world. Jewish control of major banks and financial institutions is a classic antisemitic conspiracy theory, according to reports from the Anti-Defamation League.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by The Herland Report on February 16, 2022, under the headline "The Federal Reserve Cartel - Eight Families own the USA #BIS, IMF, World Bank." It opened:
Herland Report: Who owns the Federal Reserve? Read the story on the role of BIS, the World Bank and IMF in controlling world assets:
This is how the article appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: The Herland Report website screenshot taken on Mon Feb 21 4:12:08 2022 UTC)
The eight families listed in the article are vastly wealthy but they do not own the BIS, IMF nor the World Bank. The article lists them as:
They are the Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Lehmans and Kuhn Loebs of New York; the Rothschilds of Paris and London; the Warburgs of Hamburg; the Lazards of Paris; and the Israel Moses Seifs of Rome.
The article asks who owns the Federal Reserve, which is one aspect of a conspiracy theory that banks around the world are owned and controlled by a nefarious group of wealthy families. The Federal Reserve website explains the ownership of the organization:
Who owns the Federal Reserve?
The Federal Reserve System is not 'owned' by anyone. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 by the Federal Reserve Act to serve as the nation's central bank. The Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., is an agency of the federal government and reports to and is directly accountable to the Congress.
The World Bank website explains its history. It is not owned by the eight families listed in the article:
The World Bank is like a cooperative, made up of 189 member countries. These member countries, or shareholders, are represented by a Board of Governors, who are the ultimate policymakers at the World Bank. Generally, the governors are member countries' ministers of finance or ministers of development. They meet once a year at the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.
BIS -- the Bank for International Settlements -- is not privately owned. Per the website:
Our mission is to support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, and to act as a bank for central banks.
The institution lists on its Disclaimers page a summary of what it is:
The BIS is an international organisation which fosters cooperation among central banks and other agencies in pursuit of financial and monetary stability. It has no supervisory or regulatory functions or responsibilities. Its banking services are provided exclusively to central banks, monetary authorities and international financial institutions. The BIS does not accept deposits from, or provide banking services or advice to, private individuals or companies.
The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, is not privately owned. The U.S. Department of the Treasury website states:
The IMF is an organization of 189 member countries that works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. The Secretary of the Treasury serves as the U.S. Governor to the IMF, and the U.S. Executive Director of the IMF is one of 24 directors who exercise voting rights over the strategic direction of the institution. The U.S. is the largest shareholder in the Fund.
The Anti-Defamation League has published reports regarding the antisemitic conspiracy theories about the wealthy Jewish families owning all the world's banks:
In more recent years, the antisemitic notion that 'the Jews' dominate and command the U.S. Federal Reserve System and in effect control the world's money has surfaced across the extremist spectrum.
A section in the report titled, "The Rothschild Connection," says, "In the literature of bigots, the name Rothschild is a trigger for the most explosive of antisemitic tremors, and it usually sets off a litany of other Jewish names." The article continues:
In 1983, the charge that Rothschild banks and other international banking concerns, mostly with Jewish names, controlled the Federal Reserve was published (probably from earlier sources) in the newsletter of a local Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) -- not an extremist group. The article stated that the Federal Reserve System 'is not a Federal entity but a private corporation owned in part by the following: Rothschild banks of London and Berlin, Lazard Brothers bank of Paris, Israel Moses Seif banks of Italy, Warburg bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam, Lehman Bros. bank of New York, Chase Manhattan bank of New York, Kuhn, Loeb bank of New York, Goldman Sachs bank of New York.'
In fact the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- the largest and most significant of the Fed's 12 banks -- lists the banks in the Second Federal Reserve District that are members and stockholders in the New York Federal Reserve Bank. With the exception of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the institutions cited by the NARFE newsletter as allegedly owning and controlling the Federal Reserve system ('Rothschild ... Lazard Brothers ... Israel Moses Seif... Warburg ... Lehman Brothers ... Kuhn, Loeb ... Goldman, Sachs') were not members of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Lead Stories has written several articles debunking claims concerning the Rothschild family. You can see those here.
