(5)According to the first condition laid down in Article 5(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009, CRAs in a third country must be subject to authorisation or registration and must be also subject to effective supervision and enforcement on an ongoing basis. The US legal and supervisory framework requires CRAs to register as Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organizations (NRSRO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in order to allow the use of their ratings for regulatory purposes. They are subsequently supervised by the SEC on an ongoing basis. The SEC is endowed with a comprehensive range of supervisory powers allowing it to investigate whether credit rating agencies comply with their legal obligations. Those powers include the power to access documents, to conduct investigations and to carry out on-site inspections, as well as the power to require access to records of telephone recordings and electronic communication. The SEC can exercise these powers not only in respect of credit rating agencies, but also in respect of other persons involved in credit rating activities. The US legal and supervisory framework requires the SEC to conduct an examination of each NRSRO at least annually and to report on the findings of these examinations. Where the SEC has established that an NRSRO is in breach of any obligation arising from the relevant rules, it may adopt a wide range of supervisory measures in order to stop the infringement. Those measures include the power to withdraw the registration, to suspend the use of ratings for regulatory purposes and to order the credit rating agencies to stop the infringement. The SEC can also impose severe penalties on credit rating agencies for breaches of the relevant requirements. Therefore, NRSROs are subject to effective supervision and enforcement on an ongoing basis. The cooperation agreement concluded between ESMA and the SEC provides for information exchange with regard to enforcement and supervisory measures taken against cross border CRAs.