A. The director may act on the director's own initiative or in response to complaints and may receive complaints, take action to obtain voluntary compliance with the Uniform Money Services Act, refer cases to the office of the attorney general or any other state agency or agency of another state or the United States and seek or provide remedies as provided in the Uniform Money Services Act.
B. The director may investigate and examine, in New Mexico or in any other state or country, by subpoena or otherwise, the activities, books, accounts and records of a person that provides or offers to provide money services, or a person to which a licensee has delegated its obligations pursuant to an agreement or the Uniform Money Services Act, to determine compliance with the Uniform Money Services Act. Information that identifies individuals who have agreements with the licensee shall not be disclosed to the public. In connection with the investigation, the director may:
(1) charge the person the reasonable expenses necessarily incurred to conduct the examination; and
(2) require or permit a person to file a statement under oath as to all the facts and circumstances of a matter to be investigated.
C. The director may enter into cooperative arrangements with other state agencies or agencies of another state or of the United States, or the nationwide multistate licensing system and registry, and may exchange with any of those entities information about a licensee, including information obtained during an examination of the licensee.
D. The director may bring an action to enforce the Uniform Money Services Act in New Mexico or in any other state or country.
E. The director may recover the reasonable expenses of enforcing the Uniform Money Services Act pursuant to Article 8 of that act, including nongovernmental attorney and expert witness fees based on the hours reasonably expended and the hourly rates for attorneys and expert witnesses of comparable experience in the community.
History: Laws 2016, ch. 88, § 901; 2019, ch. 144, § 23.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, replaced "nationwide mortgage licensing system and registry" with "nationwide multistate licensing system and registry"; and in Subsection C, after "nationwide", deleted "mortgage" and added "multistate".