New York’s Top Finance Watchdog to Resign Amid Cuomo Turmoil

(Bloomberg) -- New York’s top financial regulator, Linda Lacewell, is planning to step down as the state grapples with fallout from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.

Lacewell, the state’s superintendent of financial services, will resign effective Aug. 24, she said in a memo to colleagues Friday. She will also resign from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board on the same day, according to a statement from Tim Minton, the MTA’s acting chief communications officer.

“With a new governor about to take office, it is time for me to move on and make way for new leadership,” Lacewell said in the memo to New York’s Department of Financial Services.

Cuomo resigned earlier this week after a report by New York state Attorney General Letitia James laid out evidence of sexual misconduct involving 11 women. He’ll be replaced by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who will become the state’s first female governor.

Hochul said this week that she will replace all Cuomo staffers implicated in the attorney general’s report. James’s report said Lacewell sometimes helped the governor respond to complaints about his behavior.

Lacewell led the financial regulator, a powerful position in the state given its proximity to Wall Street, for the past 2 1/2 years. In the memo, she cited the department’s work during Covid-19 and its efforts on climate change as key initiatives under her tenure.

“I am proud of the work we have done together,” Lacewell said in the memo. “Our accomplishments are many.”

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