ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 271
(By Senators Minard, Jenkins, Barnes and Plymale)
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[Passed March 7, 2006; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §31A-4-35 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the time period for which state
banks must retain records.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31A-4-35 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. BANKING INSTITUTIONS AND SERVICES GENERALLY.
§31A-4-35. Reproduction of checks and other records; admissibility
of copies in evidence; disposition of originals;
record production generally.
(a) Any bank may cause to be copied or reproduced, by any
photographic, photostatic, microphotographic or by similar
miniature photographic process or by nonerasable optical image
disks (commonly referred to as compact disks) or by other records retention technology approved by rule of the Commissioner of
Banking, all or any number of its checks and all or any part of its
documents, books, records, correspondence and all other
instruments, papers and writings in any manner relating to the
operation of its business, other than its notes, bonds, mortgages
and other securities and investments, and may substitute such
copies or reproductions either in positive or negative form for the
originals thereof. Thereafter, such copy or reproduction in the
form of a positive print thereof shall be deemed for all purposes
to be an original counterpart of and shall have the same force and
effect as the original thereof and shall be admissible in evidence
in all courts and administrative agencies in this state, to the
same extent and for the same purposes as the original thereof, and
the banking institution may destroy or otherwise dispose of the
original, but every banking institution shall retain either the
originals or such copies or reproductions of its records of final
entry, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
cards used under the card system and deposit tickets for deposits
made, for a period of at least five years from the date of the last
entry on such books or the date of making of such deposit tickets
and card records or, in the case of a banking institution
exercising trust or fiduciary powers, accounting and legal records
shall be retained until the expiration of five years from the date of termination of any trust or fiduciary relationship relating to
such accounting and legal records by a final accounting, release,
court decree or other proper means of termination and supporting
documentation for fiduciary account transactions shall be retained
for five years from the dates of entry of such transactions.
All circumstances surrounding the making or issuance of such
checks, documents, books, records, correspondence and other
instruments, papers or writings, or the photographic, photostatic
or microphotographic copies or optical disks or other permissible
reproductions thereof, when the same are offered in evidence, may
be shown to affect the weight but not the admissibility thereof.
Any device used to copy or reproduce such documents and
records shall be one which correctly and accurately reproduces the
original thereof in all details and any disk or film used therein
shall be of durable material.
(b) When a subpoena duces tecum is served upon a custodian of
records of any bank in an action or proceeding in which the bank is
neither a party nor the place where any cause of action is alleged
to have arisen and the subpoena requires the production of all or
any part of the records of the bank relating to the conduct of its
business with its customers, the bank shall be entitled to a search
fee not to exceed ten dollars, together with reimbursement for
costs incurred in the copying or other reproduction of any such record or records which have already been reduced to written form,
in an amount not to exceed seventy-five cents per page. Any and
all such costs shall be borne by the party requesting the
production of the record or records.