Yes, banks own "shares". I put it in quotes because the "shares" are totally unlike shares traded on an exchange. They pay a 6% dividend, although it would more properly described as an interest payment like you would receive from a bond.
The 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by the Congress as the operating arms of the nation's central banking system, are organized similarly to private corporations--possibly leading to some confusion about "ownership." For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year.
Further evidence that they are part of the government.....
Release Date: January 9, 2015
For release at 11:00 a.m. EST
The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced preliminary unaudited results indicating that the Reserve Banks provided for payments of approximately $98.7 billion of their estimated 2014 net income to the U.S. Treasury. Under the Board's policy, the residual earnings of each Federal Reserve Bank are distributed to the U.S. Treasury, after providing for the costs of operations, payment of dividends, and the amount necessary to equate surplus with capital paid-in.
The Federal Reserve Banks' 2014 estimated net income of $101.5 billion was derived primarily from $115.9 billion in interest income on securities acquired through open market operations (U.S. Treasury securities, federal agency and government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and GSE debt securities). Operating expenses of the Reserve Banks, net of amounts reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury and other entities for services the Reserve Banks provided as fiscal agents, totaled $3.6 billion in 2014. In addition, the Reserve Banks were assessed $711 million for the costs related to producing, issuing, and retiring currency, $590 million for Board expenditures, and $563 million to fund the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Reserve Banks had interest expense of $6.9 billion associated with reserve balances and term deposits held by depository institutions, and recorded foreign currency translation losses of $2.9 billion that result from the daily revaluation of foreign currency denominated asset holdings at current exchange rates.
Additional earnings were derived from income from services of $435 million, and net income of $101 million attributable to the consolidated limited liability companies that were created in response to the financial crisis. In 2014, statutory dividends totaled $1.7 billion and $1.1 billion of net income was used to equate surplus to capital paid-in.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20150109a.htm
"Shareholders" received $1.7 billion, but the US Treasury received $98.7 billion.
Please tell the thread how the shareholding banks aren’t making a profit if their membership earned them 1.7 billion dollars in 2014.