The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) releases its inaugural “Annual Report” today to highlight the strides IDFPR has made. This report also explains what IDFPR does and the divisions within the department.

IDFPR employs hundreds of people who work to ensure the state’s banks, financial institutions, and healthcare, occupational, and real estate professionals are properly licensed and follow the Acts and Rules that regulate their professions. IDFPR’s purpose is to ensure strong consumer protections and promote licensed professions, industries, and financial organizations in every community across our incredible state.

A couple items touted early in the report were the implementations of Illinois’ medical and adult-use cannabis programs. The report mentioned that in August 2013, Illinois became the 20th state to legalize medical cannabis when the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act was signed into law. At that time, IDFPR became responsible for licensing and regulating the dispensaries that sell medical cannabis to patients, along with each dispensary’s Principal Officers, Agents-in-Charge, and Agents.

On June 25, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, which made Illinois the 11th state to legalize adult use cannabis. The report touted that “IDFPR oversaw the successful rollout of the program, which allowed existing medical cannabis dispensaries to begin selling adult use cannabis on January 1, 2020. Similar to its medical cannabis licensing responsibilities, IDFPR licenses adult use cannabis dispensaries, along with the Principal Officers, Agents-in-Charge, and Agents at each dispensary.” IDFPR also is responsible for tracking and reporting the sales made at adult-use cannabis dispensaries.

Currently, IDFPR is comprised of four divisions: Division of Banking, Division of Financial Institutions, Division of Professional Regulation, and Division of Real Estate. IDFPR was created on July 1, 2004, when the Office of Banks and Real Estate, the Department of Financial Institutions, the Department of Insurance, and the Department of Professional Regulation consolidated into the new state agency. Each of the former agencies became a division of the new agency (though the Division of Insurance separated from IDFPR on July 1, 2009 and became the Department of Insurance).

IDFPR also touted unveiling its new agency logo “that reflects the rich history of IDFPR’s four Divisions while unifying the Department as a whole.”

“I am proud of our team’s extraordinary work and hope you enjoy reading about the many other achievements we have made throughout the 2021 Fiscal Year,” Secretary Mario Treto, Jr. said. “Thank you for allowing us to serve the people of Illinois in the past year and we look forward to our continued partnership in the years to come.”

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