NEW YORK (1/26/2016) - Long time New York attorney Maria Vullo has been appointed to take over where Benjamin Lawsky left off at the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). This means Vulla will be in the top position over 23 NYCRR 200.

Last year the DFS put a controversial virtual currency license, known affectionately as the BitLicense of which was the subject of one of dinbits.com's Top 10 lists which ended up our most read article in 2015 and most decisively. The article made up for 50% of the traffic in August by itself and was the subject of some heated debates from both critics and supporters alike.

BitLicense Effect

The two main issues outside of the regulation, and requirements thereof, are the speed at which a company is issued a license, limited license, or denial and the clarity of enforcement.

Vullo's arrival is unlikely to effect the BitLicense regulations or requirements at all. However, the enforcement of the regulation may be influenced. The regulations are so broadly stated that they could be enforced to cover a wide range of business models and activities and the DFS has not been a wealth of public information in the clarity of this leaving companies to request clarifications on a case by case basis. Many of these have gone unanswered and the issuance of the license itself has been a slow process as well taking over a month to even issue the first one (the first virtual currency license was issued to Circle in September) of the twenty something initial applications.

Which is another area that may or may not be improved, the response time. Most companies would likely argue that they are just fine with the current sow process however. This is because after submission of the application they are considered in compliance and can proceed until further notice, s this could go both ways in way of perception of being good or bad depending on what, if anything, is affected at all.

Who the Hell Is Vullo?

Maria T. Vullo is a New York state attorney who has 25 years experience and some of that on a Supreme Court level and a federal level in addition to state. She has been involved in cases including involving fraud, real estate, health care, insurance, tax, consumer protection, bankruptcy, antitrust, constitutional and environmental law. It make some sense that she oversee DFS, but only time will tell if that affects the BitLicense in any way.

In any case it's worth a congratulations to Maria Vullo and a welcome. So officially:

Congratulations and welcome to the party. -dinbits

One thing unanimously agreed on, nobody misses Benjamin Lawsky. At least not in the digital currency industry anyway ... after all he's the one responsible for the BitLicense mess.







Story by dinbits
image by dinbits staff
Lawsky image courtesy NYDFS
Vullo image couresty Paul Weiss


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