45-8-221 - Privileged and confidential information Disclosures. - Tennessee Statutes

45-8-221. Privileged and confidential information Disclosures.

(a)  The information that is obtained by the commissioner, or any financial institutions examiner, in making an examination into the affairs of the BIDCO, shall be for the purpose of ascertaining the true condition of the affairs of the BIDCO, shall be privileged and confidential, shall not be subject to subpoena, and shall not be disclosed by the party making the examination to any person, except that the examiner shall report the condition of the affairs of the BIDCO to the commissioner, and except that the commissioner is authorized to make the following disclosures from reports of examinations and any information related to the examination of the BIDCO:

     (1)  Within the department in the course of official duties;

     (2)  To the United States department of justice, federal bureau of investigation, Tennessee bureau of investigation or state district attorneys general in the case of any criminal violation discovered during the course of an examination;

     (3)  In any administrative proceeding or court action initiated by the commissioner or the department or to which the commissioner is an actual party;

     (4)  To the directors of a BIDCO;

     (5)  To the comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee for the purpose of an audit of the department; provided, that neither this section nor § 10-7-508 shall allow the comptroller or the comptroller's designee a right of access to the names of debtors or other persons listed in the report of an examination of a BIDCO;

     (6)  To the state treasurer, commissioner of finance and administration, and commissioner of economic and community development when disclosure is in the best interest of the state;

     (7)  To other states' financial institutions' regulatory agencies that have authority to regulate BIDCOs in their states; and

     (8)  To members of the Tennessee growth fund board.

(b)  Disclosures made under subsection (a) shall be made under safeguards designed to prevent further dissemination of confidential information. If any agency or department that has received confidential information under subsection (a) receives a valid subpoena to produce documents of the department of financial institutions, or desires to use the documents in litigation including, but not limited to, discovery proceedings, in which it is involved, the agency or department shall notify the department for permission to produce the documents. The commissioner has the discretion to authorize the requesting agency or department to use the documents under a protective order approved by the commissioner and designed to prevent the unnecessary further dissemination of the documents.

(c)  (1)  A BIDCO may reproduce all, or any part of, a report of examination and send or deliver the reproduction to a holding company of which it is a subsidiary.

     (2)  As used in this section, “subsidiary” means:

          (A)  Any company twenty-five percent (25%) or more of whose voting shares, excluding shares owned by the United States or by any company wholly owned by the United States, is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by the holding company, or is held by it with power to vote;

          (B)  Any company the election of a majority of whose directors is controlled in any manner by the holding company; or

          (C)  Any company with respect to the management or policies of which the holding company has the power, directly or indirectly, to exercise a controlling influence, as determined by the commissioner, after notice and opportunity for hearing.

(d)  Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, the commissioner may, in the commissioner's discretion and in the interest of justice, and when under a validly issued subpoena, waive the privilege created herein and produce examination reports of BIDCOs and other related documents under the provisions of a protection order entered by a court or administrative tribunal of competent jurisdiction where the order is designed to protect the confidential nature of the information so disclosed from public dissemination.

[Acts 1989, ch. 124, § 21.]