Section 40: Examination of foreign or out-of-state banks; charges; availability of reports and information; cooperation with other jurisdictions
Section 40. The commissioner shall, in the manner prescribed in section two, examine every foreign bank authorized to do a banking business in the commonwealth pursuant to section thirty-eight and conducting such business pursuant to section thirty-nine and any out-of-state bank which operates a Massachusetts branch and shall inspect and examine the affairs of any such foreign or out-of-state bank, to the extent of its operations in the commonwealth, to ascertain its financial condition and whether it has complied with all applicable law. The lawful charges incurred by reason of any such examination shall be paid by the bank examined. The commissioner shall preserve a full record of each such examination. Such records and information contained in the report of any such examination, other than information required by law to be published or to be open to the inspection of the public, shall be open only to the inspection of the commissioner, his examiners and assistants, and such other officers of the commonwealth as may have occasion and authority to inspect them in the performance of their official duties. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the required production of such records, and information contained in examination reports, before any court of this commonwealth or any master or auditor appointed by any such court, in any criminal or civil proceeding therein pending, affecting such Massachusetts or out-of-state branch, its officers, directors or employees.
Copies of reports of such examinations shall be furnished to the parent bank of the branch examined for its use only and shall not be exhibited to any other person, organization or agency without the prior written approval of the commissioner. The commissioner may, in his discretion, furnish to the chief national bank examiner, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Depositors Insurance Fund, the Cooperative Central Bank, the Massachusetts Credit Union Share Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, or any successor to such entities, any other bank regulatory or law enforcement agency, or the banking departments of other states or foreign countries, such information, reports and statements relating to the institutions under his supervision as he deems appropriate.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the commissioner may enter into cooperative agreements with bank regulators in jurisdictions other than the commonwealth to facilitate the regulatory supervision of Massachusetts and out-of-state branches including agreements relative to the coordination of examinations or joint participation in examinations of said branches, and may accept reports of examinations by such regulators pursuant to such agreements. The commissioner may also enter into such agreements providing for enforcement actions against Massachusetts and out-of-state branches. Any such agreement may include provisions relative to the amount and assessment of fees for any such examination or enforcement actions. Nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting in any way the authority of the commissioner to independently conduct examinations of and enforcement actions against any Massachusetts or out-of-state branch.