You can add the Federal Reserve Bank to the list of firms that could actually profit from the financial crisis.

According to an internal estimate obtained by the Financial Times, the Fed has come out a cool $14 billion ahead, thanks to profits made on loans disbursed in the past two years.

That estimate projects that compared to the projected $5 billion the Fed would have made from investing in Treasury bills, the special loan programs created as a result of the crisis have brought in $19 billion, leading to a $14 billion profit for the agency, the paper reported.

The numbers don’t take into account the Fed’s increased risk exposure associated with the bailout of Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG: 44.36, -5.813, -11.59%), or the potential for losses on the agency’s book of mortgage-backed securities, the FT reported.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Sunday that the central bank had made about $4 billion from loans made to large banks during the crisis.  The paper cited returns from eight of the largest banks on the government’s bailout list, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and American Express.

The Times cited the payback of loans disbursed to JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Capital One to bring in an additional $3.1 billion in profit in the next month or so when those two banks buy back the Fed’s warrants to buy stock.  If Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) were to pay back their loans, the Fed would stand to earn as much as $18 billion, the paper reported.

Neither of the estimates have been sanctioned or confirmed by the Federal Reserve and the reports have yet to be published.  The Fed has not issued a comment on either report. 

The reports come as members of Congress are calling for the Fed to allow itself to be audited.  Bernanke has strongly opposed politically motivated audits of the central bank, but Representative Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has proposed a federal audit by the Government Accountability Office, a move which he says Senator Barney Frank (D-Mass.) supports.

“This is not new for him. He’s talked about this for years, and he actually supported Gonzalez back in the 70’s with his efforts to find out more about the Fed,” Rep. Paul said in an interview with FOX Business. 

In response to criticism that a Congressional audit of the Fed would lead to the central bank’s politicization, Rep. Paul argued that was not the intent.

“One thing that Barney and I’ll probably work on is to make sure that we’re not going to be managing the FOMC meeting,” Paul added. “That is not our goal; but we do need to know what’s going on.”

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