Arizona Department of Financial Institutions

The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions (Department) licenses, examines, and supervises financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, and financial enterprises, such as collection agencies and mortgage brokers. Although the Department has established policies and procedures for effectively examining financial institutions, as of April 2013, the Department had a backlog of 197 statutorily required financial enterprise examinations. In order to address the backlog, the Department should adopt a more flexible examination strategy that would enable it to spend less time on compliant financial enterprises and more time with noncompliant or high-risk financial enterprises. The Department should also improve its complaint handling by enhancing its policies and procedures and establishing complaint-processing time frames. In addition, the Department should ensure that the fees it charges match its costs.