Section 722 - Examinations1. The superintendent may at any time, and as often as he or she may determine, either personally or by a person duly designated by the superintendent, investigate the business and examine the books, accounts, records, and files used therein of every student loan servicer. For that purpose the superintendent and his or her duly designated representative shall have free access to the offices and places of business, books, accounts, papers, records, files, safes and vaults of all such servicers. The superintendent and any person duly designated by him or her shall have authority to require the attendance of and to examine under oath all persons whose testimony he or she may require relative to such business.2. No person subject to investigation or examination under this section may knowingly withhold, abstract, remove, mutilate, destroy or secrete any books, records, computer records or other information.3. The expenses incurred in making any examination pursuant to this section shall be assessed against and paid by the student loan servicer so examined, except that travelling and subsistence expenses so incurred shall be charged against and paid by servicers in such proportions as the superintendent shall deem just and reasonable, and such proportionate charges shall be added to the assessment of the other expenses incurred upon each examination. Upon written notice by the superintendent of the total amount of such assessment, the servicer shall become liable for and shall pay such assessment to the superintendent.4. In any hearing in which a department employee acting under authority of this chapter is available for cross-examination, any official written report, worksheet, other related papers, or duly certified copy thereof, compiled, prepared, drafted, or otherwise made by said department employee, after being duly authenticated by said employee, may be admitted as competent evidence upon the oath of said employee that said worksheet, investigative report, or other related documents were prepared as a result of an examination of the books and records of a servicer or other person, conducted pursuant to the authority of this chapter.5. Unless it is an exempt organization, affiliates of a student loan servicer are subject to examination by the superintendent on the same terms as the servicer, but only when reports from, or examination of, a servicer provides evidence of unlawful activity between a servicer and affiliate benefitting, affecting, or arising from the activities regulated by this article.6. This section shall not apply to exempt organizations. To the extent the superintendent is authorized by any other law to make an examination into the affairs of any exempt organization, this subdivision shall not be construed to limit in any way the superintendent's authority, regarding the subjects of such an examination, or otherwise.Added by New York Laws 2019 , ch. 58, Sec. L-1, eff. 10/9/2019.