Linda Lacewell

Linda Lacewell is the former Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, the lead regulator of virtual currency, fintech, insurance, state and foreign banking, and other financial institutions for New York. Linda was the first financial regulator, state or federal, to require consideration of the financial risks of climate change, and the first to create a cybersecurity division. She oversaw complex investigations into international money laundering and sanctions violations at major banks, and fair lending, consumer protection, and cybersecurity issues at banks, insurers, and big technology companies.

Linda supervised many foreign banks, coordinating with peer regulators in Europe. She modernized New York’s cryptocurrency license. She engaged with the fintech and banking industries on responsible innovation. She co-chaired the Governor’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee and was the first regulator to issue guidance for cyberinsurance. She created the Committee for the Advancement of Women in Financial Services and required licensed entities to diversify their boards and executive suites.

Linda was the Chief of Staff and Counselor to the former New York Governor. Previously, she was a senior counsel in the New York Attorney General’s Office where she achieved nationwide reforms in a variety of sectors. Before that, she was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York focusing on complex national and international investigations into money-laundering, securities fraud, and white-collar crime. She was a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Enron Task Force, investigating the collapse of the seventh largest public company at the time.