“The Federal Reserve secretly selected a handful of banks to bid for debt securities acquired by taxpayers in the U.S. bailout of American International Group Inc., and the rest of Wall Street is wondering what happened to the transparency the central bank said it was committed to upholding.”

“’The exclusivity by which the process has shut out smaller dealers is a little un-American,’ said David Castillo, head of sales and trading at broker Further Lane Securities LP in San Francisco, who said he would have liked to participate. ‘It seems odd that if you want to get the best possible price that it wouldn’t be open to anyone who wants to put in the most competitive bid.’”

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