Compliance review committees; functions; confidentiality of certain documents; definitions; exceptions

(a) For the purposes of this section: (1) "Bank" means a state chartered or federally chartered bank, trust company or bank holding company as defined in K.S.A. 9-519, and amendments thereto, located in this state; (2) "compliance review committee" means: (A) An audit, loan review or compliance committee appointed by the board of directors of a bank that functions to evaluate and seeks to improve loan underwriting standards, asset quality, financial reporting to federal or state regulatory agencies or compliance with federal or state statutory or regulatory requirements; or (B) any other person to the extent the person acts in an investigatory capacity at the direction of a compliance review committee; (3) "compliance review documents" means documents prepared for or created by a compliance review committee; (4) "loan review committee" means a person or group of persons who, on behalf of a bank, reviews loans held by the institution for the purpose of assessing the credit quality of the loans, compliance with the institution's loan policies and compliance with applicable laws and regulations; or (5) "person" means an individual, group of individuals, board, committee, partnership, firm, association, corporation or other entity. (b) Except as provided in subsection (c): (1) Compliance review documents are confidential and are not discoverable or admissible in evidence in any civil action arising out of matters evaluated by the compliance review committee; and (2) compliance review documents delivered to a federal or state governmental agency remain confidential and are not discoverable or admissible in evidence in any civil action arising out of matters evaluated by the compliance review committee. (c) Subsection (b) does not apply to any information required by statute or rules and regulations to be maintained by or provided to a governmental agency while the information is in the possession of the governmental agency to the extent applicable law expressly authorizes disclosure of such information. (d) This section may not be construed to limit the discovery or admissibility in any civil action of any documents that are not compliance review documents.