1. A competent authority shall have the power to:
obtain, at any time, from a SIPS operator all of the information and documents necessary to assess compliance with the requirements under this Regulation or to promote the smooth operation of payment systems at systemic level. The SIPS operator shall report the relevant information to the competent authority without undue delay;
require a SIPS operator to appoint an independent expert to perform an investigation or independent review on the operation of the SIPS. The competent authority may impose requirements concerning the type of expert to be appointed, the content and scope of the report to be produced, the treatment of the report, including disclosure and publication of certain elements, and timing for the production of the report. A SIPS operator shall inform the competent authority how the imposed requirements have been satisfied;
conduct on-site inspections or delegate the carrying out of on-site inspections. Where the proper conduct and efficiency of an inspection so requires, the competent authority may carry it out without prior announcement.
2. Decision (EU) 2019/1349 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2019/25) 14 specifies the procedure and conditions for the exercise by a competent authority of the powers set out in this Article.