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, DFS 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 1,390 staff and a budget of $360,811,000 – 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.

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.

Updated July 2025
 

Kaitlin Asrow was appointed Acting Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) by Governor Kathy Hochul effective October 18, 2025.

Prior to her appointment, she served as Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Department’s Research & Innovation Division where she led the regulation of virtual currency entities, including BitLicenses and limited purpose trust companies. Under her leadership, DFS developed one of the world’s most sophisticated regulatory frameworks for digital assets and issued 11 pieces of groundbreaking regulatory guidance, helping to establish a global gold standard for virtual currency oversight.

Acting Superintendent Asrow also oversaw Department-wide initiatives on innovation policy, economic research, financial inclusion, and data governance. Since joining DFS in 2022, she has played a key role in advancing the Department’s operational modernization and transformation efforts.

Before her tenure at DFS, Acting Superintendent Asrow served as a Senior Policy Advisor for both the Bank of San Francisco and the Board of Governors within the Federal Reserve System. In that capacity, she led supervision and policy initiatives across the Federal Reserve System and coordinated innovation policy among the 12 district banks, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Her work focused on emerging financial technologies, data governance and management, data privacy, and artificial intelligence. Prior to the Federal Reserve, she worked for the Center for Financial Services Innovation, now the Financial Health Network, the leading authority on consumer financial health.

A recognized leader in financial services innovation and policy, entity supervision, and research design, Acting Superintendent Asrow has published extensively on data policy, including an evaluation of data protection and data rights in the United States and a review of Open Banking. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

• Download a high-resolution photo of Acting Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow

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 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

The Department enters into certain agreements with other government agencies and authorities, both domestic and foreign.