William Haraf
Commissioner

Department of Financial Institutions
For more information about DFI and its programs, go to www.dfi.ca.gov.

Responsibilities and accomplishments include:

Ensuring safety and soundness of the financial services industry:

• DFI ensures public confidence in financial institutions by protecting the interests of depositors, borrowers, shareholders and consumers through enforcement of applicable state and federal laws.
• Professionally accredited from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors certifying that DFI maintains the highest standards and practices in state banking supervision.
• Work collaboratively with the state Department of Real Estate, Department of Corporations, and the Office of Real Estate Appraisers to provide a central license-information Web page and database to improve client services.

Streamlining approval processes for new banks and licensees:

• Approved over 90 new state banks during the last five years.
• Established a new-bank application process that reduced the total number of steps in the process by close to 50 percent.
• Instituted Web-based DFI post-examination licensee survey to ensure the examination process reduces processing costs and provides value to licensees.
• Implemented CD-based application to reduce application times of licensees for transmitters of money abroad, agent authorizations and branch-office applications.

Promoting financial literacy:

• Sponsor California Financial Literacy Month in April to highlight financial literacy educational programs provided by financial institutions, government entities and community-based organizations and encourage all Californians to plan for and protect their financial futures by increasing their knowledge and understanding of saving, investing and credit choices.