ALL BUSINESS: More Transparency Needed From Fed

As a result, the $29 billion in assets that landed on the Fed's books include commercial and residential loans and other mortgage-related securities. As of March 31, the Fed valued those holdings at $25.3 billion. That's a loss on paper of almost $4 billion, but Eisenbeis thinks the losses are even bigger since those numbers are almost three months old — an eternity in today's financial world.

Bundled in the Maiden Lane holdings is some of the debt of Extended Stay Hotels, headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C. The hotel chain has been battered by a plunge in spending among business travelers. But most of its woes are self-inflicted; its debt burden ballooned after a 2007 takeover that was financed by $7.4 billion in loans.

The Fed wound up with $744 million of various junior classes of Extended Stay's debt and $153 million of senior debt.

It isn't yet known what the Fed will be entitled to as Extended Stay reorganizes under Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection, which it entered on Monday. A spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York declined comment.

But the bankruptcy filing values the reorganized company at $3.3 billion, not even worth the $4.1 billion of its first mortgage loans. That means creditors will likely have to take a haircut.