New York State Department of Financial Services cites $645 million returned to consumers and $418 million in penalties in FY2026 budget testimony

The New York State Department of Financial Services published Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris’s statement to a joint legislative public hearing on the Governor’s fiscal year 2026 Executive Budget – Health, outlining DFS’s supervisory scope, funding model, and reported operational and policy changes since 2021. The testimony emphasises increased regulatory output, enforcement activity, and consumer remediation, alongside efforts to modernise requirements and streamline compliance. DFS reported supervising more than 3,000 financial institutions with nearly USD 10 trillion in assets, including over 1,900 insurance entities and more than 1,300 banks and financial institutions, including 120 foreign banks and 15 Global Systemically Important Banks. The department said it is funded through assessments on regulated entities and that in fiscal year 2024 it provided more than USD 514 million to New York State and New Yorkers through restitution, penalties paid to the state General Fund, and assessment revenue reappropriated to other state programmes. Since August 2021, DFS reported adopting or amending 54 regulations, issuing 98 pieces of regulatory guidance, and closing 117 enforcement actions resulting in more than USD 418 million in penalties; it also reported addressing more than 157,000 consumer complaints and returning USD 645 million to consumers and health care providers, including more than USD 228 million in 2024.