Sec. 31.107. REGULATION AND EXAMINATION OF RELATED ENTITIES. (a) The banking commissioner may regulate and examine, to the same extent as if the services or activities were performed by a state bank on its own premises:

(1) the activities of a state bank affiliate; and

(2) the services or activities of a third-party service provider that a state bank or state bank affiliate has contracted for or otherwise arranged to be performed on behalf of the state bank or state bank affiliate.

(b) The banking commissioner may collect a fee from an examined third-party service provider or affiliate in connection with each examination to cover the cost of the examination or may collect that fee from the state banks that use the examined third-party service provider.

(c) For purposes of this section, a state bank affiliate does not include a company in which ownership or membership is limited to individuals and conditioned by law on the existence and maintenance of professional licensing.

(d) To promote regulatory efficiency, if, in the preceding 24 months, a third-party service provider or affiliate has been examined by a federal or state financial services regulatory agency or by a member agency of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, or its successor agency, the banking commissioner may accept the results of that examination instead of conducting the banking commissioner's own examination of the third-party service provider or affiliate. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as limiting or restricting the banking commissioner from participating in an examination of a third-party service provider or affiliate conducted by a federal or state financial services regulatory agency or by a member agency of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, or its successor agency.

(e) A third-party service provider that refuses to submit to examination or to pay an assessed fee for examination under this section is subject to an enforcement action under Chapter 35. With respect to a third-party service provider's refusal to submit to examination, the banking commissioner may notify all state banks of the refusal and warn that continued use of the third-party service provider may constitute an unsafe and unsound banking practice.

Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.

Amended by:

Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 599 (S.B. 1401), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2017.

Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 652 (S.B. 1823), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2019.