Missourians' personal banking information won't be part of any state auditor's review of the state Division of Finance.
That promise is at the heart of an agreement announced Monday between the auditor's office and the Missouri Bankers Association.
"Our objective in the audit is not to audit whether banks are doing a good job or not," State Auditor Tom Schweich told reporters in his Capitol office Monday afternoon. "What we do is, we audit the Division of Finance to make sure they're doing their job ... to make sure our banks are healthy."
Just a couple of hours after Schweich announced the deal, state Sen. Brad Lager was explaining a bill to a Senate committee that would make that compromise a permanent part of state law.
"This clarifies language so that the state auditor can look at the Division of Finance, to insure that they are auditing in a performance audit perspective," Lager, R-Savannah, told members of the Senate's Financial & Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee.