An Act to amend the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 to provide for the audit, by the Comptroller General of the United States, of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and for other purposes.
PL 95-320 (H.R.2176), enacted 07/21/1978

PUBLIC LAW 95-320—JULY 21, 1978 
92 STAT. 391 
Public Law 95-320 
95th Congress 
An Act 
To amend the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 to provide for the audit, 
by the Comptroller General of the United States, of the Federal Reserve 
System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Oflace of the 
Comptroller of the Currency, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress asserribled^ That this Act may-
be cited as the "Federal Banking Agency Audit Act". 
SEC. 2. Section 117 of the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 is 
amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: 
"(e) (1) The Comptroller General of the United States shall make, 
under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, audits— 
"(A) of the Federal Reserve Board, all Federal Reserve Banks, 
and their branches and facilities; 
"(B) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and 
"(C) of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. 
"(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term 'agency' means the 
agencies, banks, facilities, and corporation, listed in clauses (A), (B), 
and (C) of paragraph (1). 
"(3) An audit made under paragraph (1) (A) shall not include— 
"(A) transactions conducted on behalf of or with foreign cen-
tral banks, foreign governments, and nonprivate international 
financing organizations; 
"(B) deliberations, decisions, and actions on monetary policy 
matters, including discount window operations, reserves of mem-
ber banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, and open market 
operations; 
"(C) transactions made under the direction of the Federal 
Open Market Committee including transactions of the Federal 
Reserve System Open Market Account; and 
"(D) those portions of oral, written, telegraphic, or telephonic 
discussions and communications among or between Members of 
the Board of Governors, and officers and employees of the Federal 
Reserve System which deal with topics listed in subparagraphs 
(A), (B), and (C) of this paragraph. 
"(4) The General Accounting Office (hereinafter in this subsection 
referred to as the Office) shall not conduct onsite examinations of 
open insured banks or bank holding companies without the written 
consent of the agency concerned. 
"(5) (A) Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, no officer 
or employee of the Office shall disclose to any person, nor shall the 
Office disclose in its report or otherwise outside of the Office, any 
information in a form which would (i) identify a specific customer 
of an open or closed bank or bank holding company, or (ii) identify 
a specific open bank or open bank holding company. 
July 21, 1978 
[H.R. 2176] 
Federal Banking 
Agency Audit 
Act. 
31 u s e 65 note. 
31 u s e 67. 
'Agency." 
Onsite 
examinations by 
GAO, restriction. 
Nondisclosure, 
conditions. 
92 STAT. 392 
PUBLIC LAW 95-320—JULY 21, 1978 
Disclosure, 
conditions. 
'i.H\ 
.•ma gf! 0 
.Vd .1-
Reports to 
Congress. 
'•YitisgA' 
Accessibility to 
records. 
"(B) The Office may disclose information in a form which would 
identify a customer of a closed bank or closed bank holding company 
only if that customer, in the opinion of the Comptroller General, had 
a controlling influence in the management of such closed bank or closed 
bank holding company or was related to or affiliated with such a con-
trolling person or group, and then only to the extent that such dis-
closures relate to the affairs of such closed bank or closed bank holding 
company. 
"(C) Subparagraph (A) shall not be deemed to prohibit the Office 
or its employees from discussing specific customers, banks, or bank 
holding companies with officials of any of the agencies or from report-
ing apparent criminal law violations to appropriate State or Federal 
law enforcement agencies. 
"(D) Nothing in this subsection shall authorize the withholding of 
information by any officer or employee of an agency from a duly 
authorized committee or subcommittee of the Congress. 
"(6) (A) The Comptroller General shall, as frequently as may be 
practicable, make reports to the Congress on the results of audit work 
performed under this subsection. 
"(B) An advance draft of such Office audit report shall be made 
available to the agency concerned (other than banks, branches, and 
facilities) for thirty days for agency comment on the contents thereof. 
The final report shall include, as an addendum, any written comments 
submitted by the agency within such period. 
"(7) (A) For the purposes of, and to the extent necessary in mak-
ing audits required by paragraph (1), representatives of the Office 
shall have access to all books, accounts, records, reports, files, memo-
randums, papers, things, and property belonging to or in use by the 
entities being audited, including statistically meaningful samples, 
determined by the Office, of reports of examination of banks or bank 
holding companies, from whatever source, together with workpapers 
and correspondence relating to such reports whether or not a part of 
the reports; and all without deletions. 
"(B) The Comptroller General shall have the authority to authorize 
Office personnel to conduct such audits and to have access to agency 
materials described in subparagraph (A) and shall provide the agen-
cies with an up-to-date listing of such personnel, who upon proper 
identification shall be granted access to such agency materials and 
shall be permitted to make whatever notes or copies they deem neces-
sary to proper conduct of the audit. 
"(C) The agencies shall provide such Office personnel with suitable, 
lockable office space and furniture, telephone, and access to copying 
facilities. 
"(D) All Office workpapers, and agency materials described in sub-
paragraph (A) which come into possession of the Office during an 
audit, shall remain on the agencjrs premises, except for temporary 
removal of Office workpapers which do not identify a specific cus-
tomer, bank, or bank holding company as provided in paragraph 
(5) (A). Such agency materials shall be strictly maintained in order 
to prevent any unauthorized access.". 
PUBLIC LAW 95-320—JULY 21, 1978 
92 STAT. 393 
SEC. 3. Section 1906 of title 18, United States Code, is amended 
to read as follows: 
"§ 1906. Disclosure of information from a bank examination report 
"Whoever, being an examiner, public or private, or a General 
Accounting Office employee with access to bank examination report 
information under section 117(e) of the Accounting and Auditing 
Act of 1950, discloses the names of borrowers or the collateral for 31 USC 67. 
loans of any member bank of the Federal Keserve System, or bank 
insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation examined by 
him or subject to General Accounting Office audit under section 117(e) 
of the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 to other than the proper 
officers of such bank, without first having obtained the express per- 
....,, 
mission in writing from the Comptroller of the Currency as to a 
?•;,,-
national bank, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 
as to a State member bank, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corpora-
tion as to any other insured bank, or from the board of directors of 
..••'''-
such bank, except when ordered to do so by a court of competent 
jurisdiction, or by direction of the Congress of the United States, or 
either House thereof, or any committee of Congress or either House 
duly authorized or as authorized by section 117(e) of the Accounting 
and Auditing Act of 1950 shall be fined not more than $5,000 or 
imprisoned not more than one year.or both.". 
Approved July 21, 1978. 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: 
HOUSE REPORT No. 95-492 (Coram, on Government Operations). 
SENATE REPORT No. 95-723 (Coram, on Governraental Affairs). 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD: 
Vol. 123 (1977): Sept. 14, Oct. 14, considered and passed House. 
Vol. 124 (1978): May 10, considered and passed Senate, amended. 
June 29, House concurred in Senate amendraents. 
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