In the mid 1990s, I had the privilege of serving as Commissioner of Corporations for the State of California. At that time, the DOC was known as a tough securities regulator. However, the times they were a changin'. In 1996, Congress enacted the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (NSMIA) which significantly limits the authority of the states to require qualification/registration of securities transactions. 

During my tenure, the DOC also regulated health care service plans (aka HMOs and PPOs). Historically, these had been primarily nonprofit organizations and the regulatory concern had been with financial soundness. At the time many of these plans were converting to for profit. At the same time, many people were being moved into a managed care model and there was a great deal of public antipathy towards the managed care industry and the DOC's oversight of that industry. Several years after I left the DOC, the legislature transferred oversight of managed care organizations to a new department - the Department of Managed Healthcare.

During my years in state government, regulation of state chartered financial institution was trifurcated amongst the DOC, the State Banking Department, and the Department of Savings & Loan (before becoming Commission of Corporations, I served as the interim Savings & Loan Commissioner). A significant change occurred on July 1, 2013, when the DOC and the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) merged to form the Department of Business Oversight (the DBO). As a result, regulation of state chartered depository financial institutions became centralized in the DFI.

In 2021, the Governor and the legislature made the unfortunate decision to rebrand the DFI with the ungainly moniker of Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). Currently the DFPI administers and/or enforces the following:

Banks and Credit Unions

• Commercial Banks
• Industrial Banks
• Public Banks (Assembly Bill 857)
• Credit Unions
• Trust Companies & Departments

Securities and Investment

• Securities (Corporate Securities Law of 1968)
• Franchises (Franchise Investment Law)
• Capital for Businesses (Capital Access Company Law)
• Broker-Dealers & Investment Advisers (Corporate Securities Law of 1968)
• Digital Financial Assets (Digital Financial Assets Law)

Non-Bank Financial Services

• Money Transmitters
• Debt Collectors
• Check Sellers, Bill Payers & Proraters
• Covered Persons (California Consumer Financial Protection Law )

Lending and Borrowing

• Consumer & Commercial Loans (California Financing Law)
• Payday Lenders (California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law)
• Insurance Premium Finance (California Industrial Loan Law)

Home and Property Financing

• Residential Mortgage Lenders & Servicers (California Residential Mortgage Lending Act)
• Mortgage Loan Originators (California Financing Law and California Residential Mortgage Lending Act)
•  Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) (AB 1284 (Chapter 475, Statutes of 2017)

Escrow Agents

• Escrow Agents (Escrow Law)

Education Financing

• Student Loan Servicers (California Student Loan Servicing Act and subsequent enactments)