Financials Keen to Keep 'Physical' Assets
September 22, 2009, Financial Times

Several major international banks recently won Federal Reserve approval to buy, sell and store "physical commodities" such as chartered tankers to park oil at sea or "tolling agreements" with power plants. Banks can even operate commodity assets such as power plants and pipelines.

However banks' freedom to own commodity assets may be in question pending new financial regulation, and some banks may need to spin off these divisions.

Ernie Patrikis, a former general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York now at White & Case, the law firm, says: "The Fed has pushed the envelope for financial holding companies."