Benjamin Lawsky
New York Superintendent of Financial Services
In office
May 24, 2011 – June 2015
GovernorAndrew Cuomo
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded bymaria-t-vullo[1][2][3]
Personal details
Born (1970-04-14) April 14, 1970
San Diego, California, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseJessica Roth
EducationColumbia Law School (BA, JD)

Benjamin Meier Lawsky (born April 14, 1970)[4] is an American attorney and New York State's first Superintendent of Financial Services[5] serving through June, 2015, and former Acting Superintendent of Banks[6] serving through 2011.

Early life and education

Lawsky was born near a Navy base in San Diego, California, but grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a twin sister. His mother was a computer systems analyst for the Mellon Bank and his father a radiologist.

Lawsky is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Columbia College. He married attorney Jessica Roth in 2002.[7][8]

Career

Up until 2001 Lawsky was the chief counsel, in Washington, to Senator Charles E. Schumer. Subsequently, Lawsky had a senior role in the New York Attorney General's Office and also served as Governor Andrew Cuomo's Chief of Staff.

Having started his career with two federal judicial clerkships in the Eastern District of New York and the 2nd Circuit, he has also been an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

Superintendent of Financial Services

On May 24, 2011, The New York State Legislature unanimously confirmed Lawsky as New York State's first Superintendent of Financial Services.[9]

From May 24, 2011 until October 3, 2011, Lawsky was appointed, and served as, Acting Superintendent of Banks for the former New York State Banking Department, in which position he led Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's initiative to consolidate the New York State Banking Department and New York State Insurance Department towards a new financial regulator called the Department of Financial Services (DFS).[9]

He investigated Standard Chartered Bank and accused the bank of conducting secret money laundering transactions with Iran,[10] triggering a 23.5% drop in share price.[11]

On August 14, 2012, Standard Chartered Bank agreed to pay a fine of $340 million (£220 million) to the New York State Department of Financial Services, conceding that $14 million in financial transactions involving Iranian parties were in violation of U.S. banking laws.[12]

On June 18, 2013, the Department announced that Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (“Deloitte FAS”) was fined $10 million and banned from advising banks in New York for one year after accusing the firm of watering down a report about money-laundering controls at Standard Chartered.[13]

On September 11, 2013, Lawsky's office announced that New York State would opt out of an agreement on new capital reserve standards for the life insurance industry.

In a letter to other states' insurance regulators, Lawsky said that recent tests of insurance industry accounting practices had revealed "gamesmanship and abuses" regarding assessment of insurers' liquid reserves and leveraging practices.[14]

He is noted for targeting individuals within the financial sector who commit wrongdoing, and not merely handing out fines to the companies they work for, an approach he explains as follows: "Corporations are a legal fiction. You have to deter bad individual conduct within corporations. People who did the conduct are going to be held accountable."[15]

As Superintendent of Financial Services, he was paid an annual salary of $127,000.[16]

While serving as Superintendent, and following public hearings on the topic, Lawsky is credited with introducing some of the first regulations in the United States specifically affecting bitcoin depository institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges.

Lawsky announced in May 2015 that he would be stepping down the following month to launch his own legal and consulting firm, later named the Lawsky Group.[17]

The New York Times reviewed his "polarizing" tenure positively, saying that the state's banks would not miss the Columbia graduate, he having "threatened to pull their licenses, fined them hundreds of millions of dollars and forced dozens of their employees to resign."[18]

Lawsky garnered multiple awards and distinctions during his four years as bank regulator, including as one of Foreign Policy's 'Top 100 Global Thinkers' and Bloomberg Markets' '50 Most Influential in Global Finance'.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "---buckleyfirm.com/blog/2016-06-17/new-york-senate-confirms-maria-vullo-superintendent-nydfs from google ( maria vullo benjamin lawsky ) result 3 : simplified-text :
    publish-date : 17 jun 2016
    new-york-state-senate confirm maria-vullo as super-intendent of nydfs
    nydfs issues
    on 15 jun 2016 , new-york-state-senate confirmed governor andrew-cuomo's nomination of maria-vullo as super-intendent-of-nydfs . replacing former super-intendent benjamin-meier-lawsky , maria-vullo will be responsible for regulation of more than 1,500 insurance-companies and almost 1,600 banking-institution and other financial-institution . prior joining nydfs as acting-super-intendent in feb 2016 , maria-vullo was a litigation-partner in private-practice , and formerly served as executive-deputy-attorney-general-for-economic-justice-division in new-york-state-attorney-general-office . commenting on her role , maria-vullo noted that she is "committed to strengthening new-york-state-status as financial-capital of this world , protecting consumers , and ensuring that everyone follows (central/federal-reserve)-bank-law and other law" "    .
  2. ↑ "---dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/statements_comments/2018/st1812191 from google ( maria t vullo full name ) result 8 : simplified-text :
    publish-date : 19 dec 2018
    statement from dfs-super-intendent maria-t-vullo :
    "after 3 incredibly rewarding years as dfs-super-intendent , i have informed governor that i have decided to not continue serve in this role for his 3-rd term . i thank governor for tremendous opportunity to serve new-york-state-people in this important role of lasting impact . it has been a true privilege to serve as dfs-super-intendent , particularly during a time when dfs's voice has been vital to protecting new-yorkers from federal-government-actions and to filling voids in necessary consumer and market protections . dfs has championed key-legislative initiatives over these past few years , and so I will remain as dfs-super-intendent to see dfs's initiatives through proposed executive-budget , and will leave dfs on 1 feb 2019" . "i am extremely proud of all work done at dfs over these past 3 year : protecting new-york-consumer and new-york-market , vigorously enforcing the law , setting prudent industry standards through regulations and guidance, ensuring fair access to financial-services , modernising agency-operations , assisting growth of new-york-state's vital financial-services-industry for benefit of consumers and businesses alike . dfs has had innumerable accomplishments . some accomplishments : i am especially proud to have led dfs in cyber-security , having promulgated a final-regulation in march 2017 that is now national-standard for protection of our nation's financial-markets . also i am tremendously proud of our work to protect women's rights in the face of federal-assaults , by mandating insurance-coverage of contraceptives and abortions without cost-sharing , providing essential coverage for women suffering from maternal-depression , providing a special-health-care open-enrollment-period for victims of domestic-violence , and implementing new-york-state-paid-family-leave-law . at all times , dfs put consumers 1-st , ensuring restitution for victims of financial-harm , proposing key-legislation to protect student-loan-borrowers and ensure transparency of pharmaceutical-costs, promoting responsible and state-regulated financial-technology-companies, and championing new-york-state's robust usury laws and foreclosure protections" . "I have always believed that somone's time in public-service should be judged not by how that service rewards that person's personal-pursuits , but by impact of that service on real-people-lives . I will leave dfs knowing that every day i dedicated my energies to service people of this great state and to tangibly improving their lives in any way that i could . i will continue to be dedicated to these ideals as i pursue opportunities that next await me." "while i am very excited for future, leaving dfs will be bitter-sweet . dfs-staff at all levels is 2-nd to none . i have been privileged to have best executive-team that any leader could hope for . our work together has been impactful , and those memories will be lasting . so will that indelible image of lady-liberty shining her light to our office every day at dfs , reminding this proud grand-child of immigrants of great-privilege of becoming american and a new-yorker . i thank governor , dedicated dfs team, and people living on this great state for having honor in serving you" "    .
  3. ↑ "---fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/adjunct/maria-t-vullo/ from google ( maria vullo full name ) result 1
    maria-t-vullo ( law-school-adjunct-professor )
    maria-t-vullo's legal-career cover/span private , public , non-profit-sector . most recently , she served as super-intendent-of-new-york-state-department-of-financial-services for 3 year from year 2016 -> 2019 , nominated by governor andrew-m-cuomo and confirmed by new-york-state-senate . as super-intendent , ms maria-t-vullo was responsible for regulation of new-york-state's financial-services-industry , including all new-york-state-chartered-bank , foreign-bank-branches , insurance-companies and insurance-agents licensed to do business in new-york-state , and non-depository financial services companies in new-york-state , including mortgage-lenders and crypto-currency-companies . during her tenure , ms maria-t-vullo promulgated a ground-breaking cyber-security-regulation that has become national model ; resolved significant enforcement actions for violations of bank-secrecy-act , anti-money-laundering-law , usa-economic-sanction-law ; defended entitlement of new-yorkers to quality and affordable health-care ; established prudent industry standards including a "best interests" regulation for annuities and life-insurance-products ; increased access to financial-services in underserved communities ; and protected consumers with key regulatory and legislative initiatives and by mandating restitution in numerous consent orders . ms maria-t-vullo served in leadership positions at national-association-of-insurance-commissions , conference-of-state-bank-super-visors . ms maria-t-Vullo also has more than 25 year experience in private-sector . Prior assuming role of dfs-super-intendent , ms maria-t-vullo was a litigation-partner for 20 year with paul-and-weiss-and-rifkind-and-wharton-and-garrison-LLP ( paulweiss.com ) . [source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul,_Weiss,_Rifkind,_Wharton_&_Garrison#11-dec-2023-10-53-pm-est ] . ms maria-t-vullo is an experienced trial and appellate-litigator in civil-law , criminal-law , financial-service-law , securities-law , real-estate-law , anti-trust-law , health-care-law , bankruptcy-law , environmental-law , constitutional-law . ms maria-t-vullo is also known as a leader in protecting women's and human rights , including by prosecuting significant pro-bono-litigations , authoring amicus-curiae-briefs and serving in leadership positions in non-profit organisations . ms maria-t-vullo also served as executive-deputy-attorney-general-for-economic-justice under then attorney-general andrew-cuomo . in addition , she was twice nominated by new-york-state-commission on judicial-nomination to become associate-judge-of-new-york-court-of-appeals . ms maria-t-vullo is a frequent public speaker and cle-instructor . as super-intendent , she gave more than 75 key-note-speeches to large audiences composed of financial-industry-regulators, executives-association, trade-association . ms maria-t-vullo's teaching-experience include courses taught to law-company-associates about trial-practice , evidence , client-relations-and-client-expectations , privileges , new-york-state-practice , federal-and-state-practice , deposition-skills . ms maria-t-vullo has (juris-doctor/jd)-degree from new-york-university-law-school , mpa from nyu-wagner-public-service-graduate-school , ba--and--honorary-phd from mount-saint-vincent-college.
    mailing-address : usa->new-york-state->new-york-city->zip-code--10023->fordham-university-law-school->legal-writing-program->150--west--62-nd--street->room-7-175"    .
  4. ↑ "Weddings; Jessica Roth, Benjamin Lawsky". The New York Times. 28 April 2002. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Benjamin M. Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services". dfs.ny.gov. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  6. ↑ New York State Banking Department, retrieved August 8, 2012, at NYS Banking Department website
  7. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Jessica Roth, Benjamin Lawsky". The New York Times. 28 April 2002. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  8. ↑ "Meet The Wall Street Regulator Who Pissed Off The Fed, The Treasury, And The Entire City Of London". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-08-01.
  9. 1 2 "Mission, About Us, New York State Department of Financial Services", retrieved August 8, 2012, at New York State Department of Financial Services official website, ibid. Archived 2012-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "Regulator Says British Bank Helped Iran Hide Deals", retrieved on August 8, 2012, at New York Times website
  11. ↑ "Standard Chartered Shares Drop 23.5 Percent On Iran Money-Laundering Allegations", retrieved August 8, 2012, at /Huffington Post website
  12. ↑ "Standard Chartered to pay $340m fine to New York Bank Regulator," at
  13. ↑ 2 Consultants to Banking Industry Come Under Scrutiny, New York Times; retrieved September 13, 2013, at
  14. ↑ New York Regulator Sees Abuse Increasing Under New Insurance Rules, New York Times; retrieved September 13, 2013, at
  15. ↑ Scannell, Kara (9 March 2014). "Lawsky to step up assault on Wall Street's corporate wrongdoing". ft.com. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  16. ↑ Liz Rappaport, Wall Street's New Watcher, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved August 8, 2012, at online.wsj.com
  17. ↑ "The Lawsky Group". Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  18. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica; Protessm, Ben (May 20, 2015). "Benjamin Lawsky, Sheriff of Wall Street, Is Taking Off His Badge". The New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
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