A bank examiner is a financial professional, a species of auditor, who has the task of making sure that banks, savings and loans, credit unions and similar financial institutions are operating legally, ethically, and safely, in accordance with the bank regulations imposed on these institutions by the chartering level of government. In the United States, they may conduct supervision on behalf of state governments, a United States government agency, or the Federal Reserve System; or they make work for the financial institutions themselves as internal auditors.