The public vs. private aspects of the Federal Reserve seem to be quite a muddle, per articles in Wikipedia: Federal Reserve System: "The Federal Reserve System

The public vs. private aspects of the Federal Reserve seem to be quite a muddle, per articles in Wikipedia: Federal Reserve System: "The Federal Reserve System's structure is composed of the presidentially appointed Board of Governors (or Federal Reserve Board), the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation, numerous privately owned U.S. member banks and various advisory councils." Federal Reserve Bank: "The Federal Reserve Banks have an intermediate legal status, with some features of private corporations and some features of public federal agencies. The United States has an interest in the Federal Reserve Banks as tax-exempt federally created instrumentalities whose profits belong to the federal government, but this interest is not proprietary. In Lewis v. United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that: 'The Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA [the Federal Tort Claims Act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations.' The opinion went on to say, however, that: 'The Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes.' Another relevant decision is Scott v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, in which the distinction is made between Federal Reserve Banks, which are federally created instrumentalities, and the Board of Governors, which is a federal agency."