Arizona Laws 6-832. Annual audit; report
A. The records of each escrow agent shall be audited at least once each fiscal year by a certified public accountant. The audit shall include an audit of the escrow, account servicing and subdivision trust activities of the escrow agent and shall follow generally accepted accounting principles. A copy of the audit report shall be filed with the deputy director not more than one hundred twenty days after the end of the escrow agent’s fiscal year. The audit requirement may be satisfied by filing a copy of the audit report, which is prepared by a certified public accountant, of the parent of the escrow agent including an audit of the escrow, account servicing and subdivision trust activities of the escrow agent within the prescribed time period. The deputy director may extend the time period in this subsection up to ninety days for good cause shown.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 6-832
- Account servicing: means the holding of documents or written instruments and the receipt and disbursement of payments according to the instructions of the parties to the documents or written instruments. See Arizona Laws 6-801
- Control: means ownership or the power to vote, either directly or indirectly, more than twenty per cent of the outstanding voting shares of the controlled person. See Arizona Laws 6-801
- Deputy director: means the deputy director of the financial institutions division of the department. See Arizona Laws 6-101
- Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
- Escrow: means any transaction in which any escrow property is delivered with or without transfer of legal or equitable title, or both, and irrespective of whether a debtor-creditor relationship is created, to a person not otherwise having any right, title or interest therein in connection with the sale, transfer, encumbrance or lease of real or personal property, to be delivered or redelivered by that person upon the contingent happening or nonhappening of a specified event or performance or nonperformance of a prescribed act, when it is then to be delivered by such person to a grantee, grantor, promisee, promisor, obligee, obligor, bailee or bailor, or any designated agent or employee of any of them. See Arizona Laws 6-801
- Escrow agent: means any person engaged in the business of accepting escrows. See Arizona Laws 6-801
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Subdivision trust: means an agreement in which title to real property or an interest therein is held for the limited purpose of holding, subdividing, developing or selling real property or an interest therein, or to facilitate any business transaction with respect thereto and under which agreement the trustee acts pursuant to direction of its beneficiaries, and without discretionary powers, with respect to the holding, subdivision, development or sale of real estate or an interest therein or the disposition of the proceeds therefrom. See Arizona Laws 6-801
- Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215
B. At the time required by the deputy director, every escrow agent shall make and file in the office of the deputy director a true and correct report, in the form and containing the data the deputy director may require, of the business of the agent, including the agent’s escrow, account servicing and subdivision trust activities. Every agent shall reply promptly in writing to an inquiry from the deputy director concerning the escrow agent’s business.
C. The scope of the audit shall include consideration of the escrow agent’s internal control structure as defined in section 6-841 in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. A separate report shall be submitted to the deputy director if reportable conditions are identified that indicate significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control structure of the escrow agent that would adversely affect the agent’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial data consistent with the assertions of management in the financial statements. If reportable conditions are identified, the report on reportable conditions shall recommend specific measures to improve the escrow agent’s internal control structure.