DFS Enforcement To Increase Focus on Consumer Protection: 'Where CFPB Steps Down, DFS Has To Step Up'

The newly confirmed Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), Linda Lacewell, told the New York Law Journal recently that she plans to use her position to further strengthen the agency's work protecting consumers. Superintendent Lacewell has indicated this effort is a response, in part, to the shift away from financial services enforcement by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "Where CFPB steps down, DFS has to step up," she told the Wall Street Journal.

The new Superintendent has moved to reorganize the Department in some respects to facilitate this focus, and has begun or continued several investigations aimed at protecting consumers from improper conduct. These steps build on the significant consumer protection record of the Department's first two Superintendents, Benjamin Lawsky and Maria Vullo.