Home
Supervisory Activities
Supervisory activities are used for examining and investigating companies.
SES Examinations and Investigations Resources for Agencies
How to initiate and manage examinations and investigations of supervised companies.
Conducting a Supervisory Activity
A Supervisory Activity is an activity conducted by a state agency over a financial institution under its regulatory authority. It includes Examination, Investigation, and enforcement actions.
Procedures
Procedures are used to guide examiners during the examination in the review of company documentation or compliance with statutes, regulations, and other requirements.
Working Procedures
When working procedures, you are adding examiner observations, uploading relevant documents, and marking procedures done.
Managing Procedure Observations Offline
Instructions for exporting and importing the procedure observations template.

Supervisory Activities
Supervisory activities are used for examining and investigating companies.
- SES Examinations and Investigations Resources for Agencies
  How to initiate and manage examinations and investigations of supervised companies.
  - Job Aid: Conducting Your First Exam in SES
    This job aid serves as a guide for new Examiner in Charge (EIC) to conduct their first exam in the State Examination System (SES). It highlights the basic workflow of an exam in SES and points out important information along the way.
  - Managing Supervisory Activities
    This section includes managing the Library, exam scheduling, and participants in a Supervisory Activity. Bulk download of data from supervisory activities is also included.
  - Conducting a Supervisory Activity
    A Supervisory Activity is an activity conducted by a state agency over a financial institution under its regulatory authority. It includes Examination, Investigation, and enforcement actions.
    - Initiating a Supervisory Activity
      The first step in conducting an exam, investigation, or enforcement in SES is to Supervisory Activity on a company.
    - Updating the Basic Details of a Supervisory Activity
      Examiners in Charge (EICs), and Staff Users that are participants on a supervisiry activity (SA) can make updates to the basic details of an examination and save them to the SA.
    - Canceling a Supervisory Activity
      You can cancel a supervisory activity (SA) in SES at any time before the report is sent to the company.
    - Sending a Supervisory Activity for Review
      When initiating a Supervisory Activity in SES, you have the option of sending it for review.
    - Reviewing a Newly-Initiated Supervisory Activity
      The staff director or staff user who initiated a supervisory activity (SA) has the option of sending the SA for review to one or more staff directors before it is scheduled.
    - Milestones and the Supervisory Activity Workflow
      The workflow and its milestones are displayed on the supervisory activity's Summary page. There are seven milestones in total, and there are specific tasks to be completed in that phase of the supervisory activity.
    - Managing the Plan
      The plan informs participants of their responsibilities within the exam. Defining the plan is optional.
    - Managing the Scope
      The scope determines the content that will be reviewed during a supervisory activity, including the review period, business types and business activities, and the areas for review within the selected business types and activities.
    - Reviewing the Scope as the Primary Reviewer
      Once the examiner in charge (EIC) sends an item (Scope, Plan, MRA, etc.) for review, the first reviewer selected in the step is the primary reviewer. Only the first reviewer selected to review the item can follow these steps.
    - Information Requests
      Information Request (IR) contain template language used to request information from a company.
    - Loan Requests
      When conducting an Examination with a Loan File Review Area for Review (AFR), you can send an Information Request (IR) to the company asking for a full list of their loan information.
    - Transaction Requests for Agencies
      Transaction requests in SES allow agency users to initiate and manage formal requests related to specific transactions during a money services business (MSB) examination. Unlike information requests or loan requests, which target broader data or document categories, transaction requests focus on obtaining evidence tied to individual transactions, supporting detailed analysis and issue identification throughout the examination lifecycle.
    - MTRA Workbook
      Users conducting MSB exams can export work completed in SES into a template that matches the MTRA work program.
    - Procedures
      Procedures are used to guide examiners during the examination in the review of company documentation or compliance with statutes, regulations, and other requirements.
      - Viewing Procedures
        You can filter the procedures associated with a supervisory activity by status, core or non-core, user assignment, or area for review.
      - Adding Procedures
        How to add procedures to your supervisory activity.
      - Uploading General Procedure Documents
        Active agency participants on a supervisory activity (SA) can upload general procedure documents to an SA.
      - Assigning Procedures
        Procedures can be assigned to other participants on a supervisory activity.
      - Working Procedures
        When working procedures, you are adding examiner observations, uploading relevant documents, and marking procedures done.
        Working Procedures from the Procedures Tab
        How to work procedures from the Procedures tab on the Examination page.
        Bulk Working Procedures
        How to use the Bulk Work Procedures functionality when working procedures in SES.
        Bulk Work Procedure Observations
        How to use the Bulk Work Procedure Observations functionality when working procedures in SES.
        Managing Procedure Observations Offline
        Instructions for exporting and importing the procedure observations template.
      - Removing Procedures
        The system automatically pulls in all procedures from the library for a supervisory activity, but not all of them are necessarily relevant to all examinations, so you many need to remove any irrelevant procedures.
      - Associating Information Requests to Procedures
        How to associate information requests (IRs) to procedures in a supervisory activity.
      - Exporting Procedures
        Users with detail level access to the SA can export the list of procedures.
    - Conducting the Exam: Reviewing Information Request Responses
      Conducting the exam consists of reviewing Information Request (IR) responses, working procedures and adding or reviewing findings.
    - Findings
      A finding is an issue identified by a state agency user during the supervision of a financial institution in SES. The finding may describe the company’s strengths and/or weaknesses regarding its compliance management system, assess the company’s compliance with consumer protection laws or regulations, or any potential consumer harm. A finding may be either a violation, recommendation, or observation.
    - Conducting the Exam: Marking an Area for Review (AFR) Complete
      Conducting the exam consists of reviewing information request (IR) responses, working procedures, and adding or reviewing findings and finding commentary.
    - Scheduling the Exit Meeting
      Schedule the exit meeting when you are ready to review the results of your examination with the company you are examining.
    - Report of Examination
      Assembling and managing report package, report commentary, and company response.
    - Matters Requiring Attention
      Matters Requiring Attention are optional tools to enable communications between agency and company regarding the resolution of findings from the exam.
    - Closing Out a Supervisory Activity
      When a Supervisory Activity is completed, you can close and lock it.
    - Managing Time and Expenses
      SES provides functionality that allows you to document the time and expenses your agency incurs while conducting a supervisory activity.
  - Networked Supervision
    Networked Supervision allows agencies in multiple states to share resources on a supervisory activity.
- SES Examinations and Investigations Resources for Companies
  Responding to examinations and investigations in State Examination System (SES).
- Capturing Communications Between Agency and Company
  The Interactions page serves as a place where communication between the agency and company is captured. This includes emails, phone calls, meetings, physical mail and other miscellaneous forms of communication specific to the supervisory activity.
- SES Supervisory Activity Reports
  SES has several reports that allow you to view staff workload, plan assignments, identify supervisory activities with no examiners assigned, and view the progress or status of supervisory activites and responses to information requests.

Managing Procedure Observations Offline

Instructions for exporting and importing the procedure observations template.

About this task

Active agency participants can download a SES Procedure Observations Template for offline use and upload the completed template back to SES before an SA reaches Close Out status. This ensures greater flexibility and enables users to complete work during an exam if Internet access is unavailable while working on-site.

Download a sample SES Procedures Observations Template to see the information included in the template.

Procedure

Navigate to your supervisory activity.
Click Examination.
Click the Manage Procedure Observations Offline button.
Select Export Template.
Select the procedures to include in the template.
- Area for Review
- Assigned to Me
- Assigned to My Agency
Select Export Template.
The system will take a few minutes to export the information into a formatted Excel spreadsheet template. Once the export is complete, you receive an email with the procedure workbook template attached.
Fill out the SES Procedure Observations Template according to the instructions on the first sheet of the workbook template and save it to your computer.
Note:
- Add observations in Column G, NEW_OBSERVATIONS. Observations will be APPENDED to the existing observations for the procedure (Column F). For multi-state exams, observations will be pre-fixed with your agency code.
- Select Yes in Column G to mark the procedure as Done.
- Select Yes in Column I to indicate that there was a finding identified while working that procedure. This Finding may be added in SES after import.
- Do not change the column headers in the second tab and do not add or remove any columns.
- Only columns G, H, and I should be edited. All other edits will be ignored by the system during import.
When back online, return to the Examination page for the SA in SES.
Click the Manage Procedure Observations Offline button.
Select Import Template.
Upload your filled SES Procedure Observations Template.
Click Import Template.
Optional: Resolve any issues with the upload identified by the system.
Review the observations added.
Click Add Observations.

Results

The procedure observations are added to the SA in SES.

Need More Help?

Agency users, please visit the Secure Portal for phone and email contacts.
Company users should call the Call Center at 1-800-269-6189. Agency users should not call this number.