NYDFS Chief Harris to Leave New York Regulator Next Month

New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris will leave the regulator next month, she announced Monday.

Harris, a former White House special assistant under former President Barack Obama, will depart NYDFS on Oct. 17, 2025, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. NYDFS Executive Deputy Superintendent of Research and Innovation Kaitlin Asrow will take over as acting head of the agency. NYDFS was the first state regulator to issue specific rules for crypto firms with its landmark BitLicense, which came into effect 10 years ago.

In statements, Hochul and Harris thanked each other, with Hochul saying Harris worked "every day to make our financial system work for New Yorkers, while also rebuilding the Department into a regulator fit for the financial capital of the world."

Harris first took office as the acting superintendent in August 2021, after Hochul nominated her to the role, and was confirmed by New York's state senate the following January.

"It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago, all at the same time," Harris said of her four-year tenure earlier Monday during an appearance at the Digital Asset Compliance & Market Integrity Summit hosted by Solidus Labs.

In that time, she said, NYDFS had issued 11 different pieces of regulatory guidance to bolster the regulator's landmark BitLicense.

"The industry had already changed so much from 2015 to 2021 when I came in, it felt really important that we start to add meat to the bones of the regulation," she said.

This included guidance for dealing with stablecoins, blockchain analytics and coin listings, among other pieces of information, she said.

"I think it's a real testament to what we've done out of DFS that folks in both chambers of Congress, folks on both sides of the aisle, come to us for our technical expertise, for advice, for edits, much of which have been incorporated — not all — but into the current market structure bill," she said.

NYDFS also undertook investigations and enforcement actions, including into the Binance dollar stablecoin (BUSD) issued by stablecoin firm Paxos following an investigation dating back to 2023.