The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) was established in 2011 when the Legislature merged the former Departments of Insurance and Banking. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the goal was to create a more efficient, comprehensive financial regulator to oversee the financial services industry, better protect consumers, and encourage economic growth in the financial capital of the world. Today, DFS is considered one of the premier financial regulators in the world.

The Department regulates the activities of over 3,000 financial institutions with nearly $10 trillion in assets. This includes over 1,900 insurance companies with assets of more than $6.4 trillion, including property and casualty insurance companies, life insurance companies, health insurers and managed care organizations, and pharmacy benefit managers. DFS also regulates more than 1,300 banks and financial institutions with assets totaling more than $3.3 trillion, including 120 foreign banks and 15 Global Systemically Important Banks, credit unions, money services businesses, credit reporting agencies, and student loan servicers.

The Department was the first U.S. regulator to start licensing virtual currency companies and has since developed a world-leading virtual currency regulatory framework. To support the Department’s role as the prudential regulator of virtual currency, Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris has built one of the largest virtual currency regulatory teams in the world. DFS was also the first to institute comprehensive cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies and led the nation in establishing a standalone Climate Division.

The Department – which has 1,359 staff and a budget of $344,750,000 – not only plays an important role in the financial sector of New York State’s economy, it also leads the nation in developing policy that fosters fair and modern financial regulation.

Updated December 2024

Learn more about the Institutions We Supervise and use our "Who We Supervise" search tool to find out whether a person or financial institution is regulated and/or licensed by DFS, and what additional locations or branches they may have.

Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris was nominated to lead the New York State Department of Financial Services by Governor Kathy Hochul in August 2021 and confirmed by the New York State Senate on January 25, 2022.

During her time with the Department, Superintendent Harris has taken decisive actions on defining issues impacting the financial services sector, including the widespread application of AI, cybersecurity, digital currency, and the 2023 banking crisis. Under her leadership, DFS has been laser focused on kitchen table issues, consumer restitution, and ensuring the financial and health care systems are more equitable and accessible for all New Yorkers. Since August 2021, DFS has recovered more than $630 million in restitution for New York State consumers and health care providers; issued 96 regulatory guidance letters; and adopted 53 banking, insurance, and financial services regulations, including regulations to reduce check-cashing fees, update DFS’s nation-leading cybersecurity regulation, and set foundational criteria for USD-backed stablecoins.

Within the Department, Superintendent Harris has focused on fostering a culture of operational excellence; adopting a data-driven approach to policy; strengthening stakeholder engagement and collaboration and implementing strategic recruitment, including by hiring DFS’s first Chief Technology Officer, establishing the Department’s first Data Governance unit, and establishing the first standalone Climate Division within a state financial regulator.

Superintendent Harris is the first New York State representative to serve on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and also serves on the Board of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). Superintendent Harris is a frequent speaker at major conferences around the globe.

Career

Superintendent Harris began her career as an Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York representing a number of U.S. and non-U.S. based corporations in various forms of litigation and regulatory matters, before accepting a position at the United States Department of the Treasury under President Obama.

While at the Treasury Department, Superintendent Harris served as a Senior Advisor to both Acting Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Mary Miller and Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin. Her work ranged from financial reform efforts to identifying solutions to the student loan crisis, analyzing the nexus between foreign investment and national security, and working to promote financial inclusion and health in communities throughout the country.

Following her time at the Treasury Department, Superintendent Harris joined The White House, where she was appointed as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy as part of the National Economic Council. In this role, she managed the financial services portfolio, which included developing and executing strategies for financial reform and the implementation of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as consumer protections for the American public, cybersecurity, and housing finance reform priorities.

After leaving the White House in January 2017, Superintendent Harris went on to serve as General Counsel and Chief Business Officer at insurance start-up DOMA. She also served as a Professor of the Practice and as Faculty Co-Director at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Center on Finance, Law and Policy at the University of Michigan, as well as a Senior Advisor at the Brunswick Group.

Superintendent Harris graduated with honors from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and subsequently earned her Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review, and a Master's in Business Administration from New York University with specializations in Economics and Management.

Updated January 2025

• Download a high-resolution photo of Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris

The New York Liquidation Bureau (NYLB) is a private organization serving the public interest by managing the receiverships of insolvent insurance estates in New York State courts. 

Receiving no funding from taxpayers, it carries out the responsibilities of the Superintendent of Financial Services as Receiver, Adrienne A. Harris, in the discharging of the Superintendent's statutorily defined duties to protect the interests of the policyholders and creditors of insurance companies that have been declared impaired or insolvent.

The NYLB has performed this function since 1909, when the New York State Legislature passed the law mandating that the Superintendent of Financial Services assume the separate responsibility of Receiver. In the case of each insurance company in receivership, the Superintendent as Receiver is appointed by the New York State Supreme Court. The Court approves all the actions of the Superintendent, and by extension those of the NYLB. The Superintendent as Receiver also serves as administrator of the Property/Casualty Insurance Security Fund, Public Motor Vehicle Liability Security Fund, and Workers’ Compensation Security Fund.

NYLB’s staff of more than 100 attorneys, accountants, and insurance professionals recover assets, manage claims, and handle the affairs of insolvent insurance receiverships under Article 74 of the New York Insurance Law.

The New York State Department of Financial Services seeks to build an equitable, transparent, and resilient financial system that benefits individuals and supports business. Through engagement, data-driven regulation and policy, and operational excellence, the Department and its employees are responsible for empowering consumers and protecting them from financial harm; ensuring the health of the entities we regulate; driving economic growth in New York through responsible innovation; and preserving the stability of the global financial system.

Policy

DFS values: Equitable – Innovative – Collaborative – Transparent

These values help guide DFS as it carries out its critical work in financial services.

• Equitable: In addition to protecting the safety and soundness of the financial system, DFS must also focus on the kitchen table issues that have a direct impact on our day-to-day lives, with fairness and equity top of mind.
• Innovative: DFS must be innovative in its approach to supervising the industry, harnessing data and technology to drive more efficient, effective policymaking.
• Collaborative: DFS, as a preeminent global financial regulator, must work hand-in-hand with other state, federal and international regulators, as well as with advocates, industry and other stakeholders.
• Transparent: DFS must be transparent in order to receive trust from the people to carry out the mission.

On October 3, 2011 the New York State Banking Department and the New York State Insurance Department were abolished and the functions and authority of both former agencies transferred to the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The legislation that created the Department of Financial Services is known as the Financial Services Law.

The purpose of consolidating these two agencies and creating the Department of Financial Services or DFS is to modernize regulation by allowing the agency to oversee a broader array of financial products and services, rather than the previous system of limiting regulation to services provided by only certain types of institutions.

The New York State Banking Department

In 1791, the New York State legislature authorized a charter for the first state bank, the Bank of New York.

A law in 1829 set up a Bank Fund later renamed the Safety Fund, to guarantee the payment of debts of insolvent state banks. All State-chartered banks were required to make an annual contribution to this fund, which was managed by the State treasurer. That same law provided for the appointment of three bank commissioners to examine the financial status of these banks and to report annually to the legislature.

The Banking Law of 1838 required banks to file certificates of incorporation with the Secretary of State and to report annually to the State Comptroller.

In 1843, the Comptroller was authorized to examine a bank only when there was reason to suspect an incorrect report had been submitted or was in an unsafe and unsound condition to continue business.

The Banking Department was created by the New York state legislature on April 15, 1851. Until it was abolished in 2011, the New York State Banking Department was the oldest bank regulatory agency in the nation.

• Archive of Annual Reports of the Banking Department

The New York State Insurance Department

Until 1849, insurance companies doing business in New York State were chartered by special acts of the Legislature. A law was passed that year requiring prospective insurance companies to file incorporation papers with the Secretary of State. The law also vested regulatory power over insurance companies with the State Comptroller, who was authorized to require the companies to submit annual financial statements and to deny a company the right to operate if capital securities and investments did not remain secure.

The Insurance Department was created in 1859 by the New York State Legislature and assumed the functions of the Comptroller and Secretary of State relating to insurance. The Department began operations in 1860.

• Archive of Annual Reports of the Insurance Department

• Advisory Boards

• Read all DFS press releases

For more information on how to contact the Department of Financial Services, please visit our Contact Us page.