Subcommittee Finds Wall Street Commodities Actions Add Risk to Economy, Businesses, Consumers

Press Release

Wall Street banks have become heavily involved with physical commodities markets, increasing risks to financial stability, industry, consumers and markets, a two-year investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found.

The investigation's findings, contained in a 396-page bipartisan report [PDF], add important new details to the public debate about the breakdown of the traditional barrier between commercial activities and banking. Included are previously unknown details about activities by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, including Goldman Sachs' controversial management of warehouses storing most of the warranted aluminum in the United States. The new details raise new questions about whether such activities harm businesses and consumers and allow for possible manipulation of the markets.

The subcommittee will hold a two-day hearing this week to receive testimony from bank officials, experts and regulators.

"Wall Street's massive involvement in physical commodities puts our economy, our manufacturers and the integrity of our markets at risk," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the subcommittee's chairman. "It's time to restore the separation between banking and commerce and to prevent Wall Street from using nonpublic information to profit at the expense of industry and consumers."

"Banks have been involved in the trade and ownership of physical commodities for a number of years, but have recently increased their participation in new ways," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "This subcommittee's hearing is an opportunity to examine that involvement, determine whether it gives rise to excessive risk, and identify potential causes for concern that warrant further oversight by Congress and financial regulators."

One focus for the subcommittee is the management of Detroit-area metal warehouses run by Metro Trade Services International, the largest U.S. warehouse company certified to store aluminum warranted by the London Metal Exchange for use in settling trades. Since Goldman bought Metro in 2010, Metro warehouses have accumulated up to 85 percent of the U.S. LME aluminum storage market.

Since Goldman took over the warehouses, the wait to withdraw LME-warranted metal has increased from about 40 days to more than 600 days, reducing aluminum availability and tripling the regional premium for storage and delivery costs.

The investigation revealed a number of previously unknown details about these deals: that Goldman's warehouse company paid metal owners to engage in "merry-go-round" deals that shuttled metal from building to building without actually shipping aluminum out of Metro's system; that the deals were approved by Metro's board, which consisted entirely of Goldman employees; and that a Metro executive raised concerns internally about the appropriateness of such "queue management."

Goldman didn't just store aluminum; it was involved in massive trades of aluminum at the same time its warehouse operations were affecting aluminum availability, storage costs, and prices. After Goldman bought Metro, it accumulated massive aluminum holdings of its own, and in 2012, added about 300,000 metric tons of its own aluminum to the exit queue at its warehouses.

The Subcommittee investigation also examined other instances of Wall Street bank involvement with physical commodities. The Subcommittee report details how JPMorgan amassed physical commodity holdings equal to nearly 12 percent of its Tier 1 capital, while telling regulators its holdings were far smaller; and that at one point it owned an amount equal to more than half the aluminum used in North America in a year. The report also discloses that, until recently, Morgan Stanley controlled 55 million barrels of oil storage capacity, 100 oil tankers, and 6,000 miles of pipeline, while also working to build its own compressed natural gas facility and supply major airlines with jet fuel.

Details are also provided about Goldman's ownership of a uranium trading company and two open pit coal mines in Colombia. When one of the mines was shut down last year due to labor unrest, Goldman's Colombian subsidiary requested military and police assistance to end a human blockade -- before paying the miners with $10,000 checks to end the protest.

The Thursday and Friday hearings will begin at 9:30 a.m. each morning. Thursday's witnesses will include executives responsible for Goldman's aluminum warehouse subsidiary; experts on the global aluminum market; and senior commodities officials from each of the banks.

Friday will include testimony from the Federal Reserve, which is considering new rules to rein in certain physical commodities activities by bank holding companies, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which penalized JPMorgan $410 million for manipulative bidding strategies that produced excessive electricity payments from consumers in California and the Midwest. The Subcommittee will also receive testimony from experts on financial risks from catastrophic events, and banking regulation of commodities.

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