Sec. 96.0551.  REGULATION AND EXAMINATION OF CERTAIN RELATED ENTITIES.  (a)  In this section, "state savings bank" has the meaning assigned by Section 31.002.
(b)  The commissioner may regulate and examine, to the same extent as if the services or activities were performed by a state savings bank on its own premises:
(1)  the activities of a state savings bank affiliate; and
(2)  the services or activities of a third-party service provider that a state savings bank or state savings bank affiliate has contracted for or otherwise arranged to be performed on behalf of the state savings bank or state savings bank affiliate.
(c)  The 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 savings banks that use the examined third-party service provider.
(d)  For purposes of this section, a third-party service provider or state savings bank affiliate does not include a company or firm in which ownership or membership is limited to individuals and conditioned by law on the existence and maintenance of professional licensing.
(e)  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 commissioner may accept the results of that examination instead of conducting the commissioner's own examination of the third-party service provider or affiliate.  Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as limiting or restricting the 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.
(f)  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 96.  With respect to a third-party service provider's refusal to submit to examination, the commissioner may notify all state savings banks of the refusal and warn that continued use of the third-party service provider may constitute an unsafe and unsound banking practice.
Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 963 (S.B. 1900), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2021.