On May 16, 2011, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the nomination of Benjamin M. Lawsky for Superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS).  The newly formed department was created by the Financial Services Law (FSL), which was enacted in April 2011.  The new entity consolidates New York’s banking and insurance regulators into a unified financial regulator with the goal of creating a “more efficient, modern, and comprehensive regulator of the financial sector,” according to a release from the Governor’s office.  The DFS is tasked with preventing fraud, regulating financial products and services and preventing state level regulatory arbitrage.  See “First Department Decision May Give Aggrieved Hedge Fund Investors an Unexpected and Powerful Avenue of Redress,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 4, No. 9, (Mar. 11, 2011).