Title 12Banks and BankingRelease 119-73

§5710 Oversight and audits

Title 12 › Chapter CHAPTER 54— - STATE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT INITIATIVE › § 5710

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Treasury Inspector General must audit and investigate how money from the program is used. Any bank or similar financial institution that gets a loan or other help with these funds after March 11, 2021 must certify it follows the identity-check rules in 31 C.F.R. 103.121 (these require reasonable ID checks, recordkeeping, and screenings against government terrorist lists). Any private business getting such help after March 11, 2021 must certify its principals have not been convicted of a sex offense against a minor (as defined in 34 U.S.C. 20911). No program money may pay the salary of anyone working on the program who was officially disciplined for violating the Executive Branch ethics rules by viewing, downloading, or sharing pornography, including child pornography, on a federal computer or while on duty.

Full Legal Text

Title 12, §5710

Banks and Banking — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Inspector General of the Department of the Treasury shall conduct, supervise, and coordinate audits and investigations of the use of funds made available under the Program.
(b)(1)With respect to funds received by a participating State under the Program, any financial institution that receives a loan, a loan guarantee, or other financial assistance using such funds after March 11, 2021, shall certify that such institution is in compliance with the requirements of section 103.121 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, a regulation that, at a minimum, requires financial institutions, as that term is defined in section 5312(a)(2) and (c)(1)(A) of title 31, to implement reasonable procedures to verify the identity of any person seeking to open an account, to the extent reasonable and practicable, maintain records of the information used to verify the person’s identity, and determine whether the person appears on any lists of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations provided to the financial institution by any government agency.
(2)With respect to funds received by a participating State under the Program, any private entity that receives a loan, a loan guarantee, or other financial assistance using such funds after March 11, 2021, shall certify to the participating State that the principals of such entity have not been convicted of a sex offense against a minor (as such terms are defined in section 20911 of title 34).
(c)None of the funds made available under this chapter may be used to pay the salary of any individual engaged in activities related to the Program who has been officially disciplined for violations of subpart G of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch for viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography, including child pornography, on a Federal Government computer or while performing official Federal Government duties.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2021—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 117–2 substituted “
March 11, 2021” for “
September 27, 2010” in pars. (1) and (2). 2014—Subsecs. (b) to (d). Pub. L. 113–188 redesignated subsecs. (c) and (d) as (b) and (c), respectively, and struck out former subsec. (b). Prior to amendment, text of subsec. (b) read as follows: “The Comptroller General of the United States shall perform an annual audit of the Program and issue a report to the appropriate committees of Congress containing the results of such audit.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2021 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 117–2 applicable with respect to funds appropriated under section 3301 of Pub. L. 117–2 and funds appropriated on and after Mar. 11, 2021, see section 3301(g) of Pub. L. 117–2, set out as a note under section 5701 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

12 U.S.C. § 5710

Title 12Banks and Banking

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73