Imagine. The very first e-mail that Diana Taylor received as superintendent of banks was from someone claiming to be stuck in Nigeria with $30 million, which could be extricated only with the help of a small donation from Ms. Taylor.

It was, of course, a scam, and maybe a sign as well. Since her appointment to the New York State position by Governor Pataki in 2003, one of Ms. Taylor’s main crusades has been ferreting out rampant consumer fraud.

Her team has undertaken massive mail campaigns and wide-ranging speaker programs detailing the latest attempts to part unwary consumers from their funds. It is unending. For every new gimmick that the office reveals, persistent tricksters come up with another – generally targeting the people who can least afford to succumb.

These are, in many cases, the same people whose only link with the banking system is through their dealings with check-cashing or money-transmitting outfits, called money service businesses, or MSBs. The rapid growth of these organizations has raised all kinds of alarms, and is another of the principle concerns of Ms. Taylor’s office.

Why? First, because a huge amount of money flows through these organizations, and until lately, regulation has been spotty. Currently, the banking office licenses 213 check cashers with nearly 1,000 locations. The latest available figures show that, in 2003, in New York State alone, nearly $15 billion flowed through these firms. Nationwide, the total exceeded $55 billion.

The money transmitters are even bigger. These outfits in 2004 handled more than 90 million travelers checks, money orders, and other checks for a total of more than $101 billion in New York State alone.

Second, because poor regulation combined with rapid growth has resulted in security and credit issues, which have in turn led many banks to abandon their dealings with the MSBs. This means that entire low-income neighborhoods may end up without financial services. Often these communities are populated by immigrants, who rely on the MSBs to cash their paychecks and send money to their families back home.

On both counts, Ms. Taylor is not happy. The situation is further complicated by national security concerns, which have caused a whole new level of oversight of the movement of funds. Until Ms. Taylor took over the department, there was little effort to communicate with other enforcement agencies and little information sharing.

She has undertaken to correct this problem, among other things testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on the necessary inclusion of state regulators in the flow of information. If tracing the funding of terrorist operations could eradicate a threat to the population, any misses along these lines are unacceptable.

These concerns rank highest for Ms. Taylor, in part because the supervision of MSBs is becoming a larger part of her domain. Most of the large banks with operations in many states have applied for and received a national charter, effectively removing them from New York State oversight. The largest New York chartered bank at present is Bank of New York.

Indeed, the face of banking has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. With the demise of Glass-Stegal, banks have become permanent participants in the securities businesses. Also, foreign-owned banks have steadily penetrated American banking. Arguably, regulation has not kept pace.

Today, Ms. Taylor’s office oversees about 80% of the foreign banks with headquarters in America, as well as numerous banks that operate primarily in New York. In all, the banking superintendent monitors 3,400 financial institutions, which, ironically, pay for the oversight.

Indeed, thanks to the “assessments” levied, Ms. Taylor’s office is a profit center of sorts for the state. Even so, the agency has had to comply with a statewide hiring freeze, leaving the office scrambling to expand its vigilance to an increasing number of small operations.

It is the only state banking office in the country with its own criminal investigations unit. Nonetheless, the office manages with fewer than 600 employees, a number that has declined since Ms. Taylor took over. This is only one of her successes in the office.

She has streamlined the process to apply for licenses to make them more suitable for the MSBs, updated computer systems, and created a new consumer-outreach program. In short, she has put the division in step with the financial markets of today.

What’s next for Ms. Taylor? As a protege of Governor Pataki, she is likely to be out of office once his term expires. Her future in government may depend on Mr. Pataki’s success in running for higher office. She could also retrace her steps into investment banking, where she began her notable career.

In the meantime, she acknowledges she will likely move on in the next couple of years, but claims she hasn’t thought much about what’s next on her dance card. “I like this job,” she contends, and indeed she seems committed to the challenges before her.

Could she run for office? Definitely not. “I’m a staff person,” she states definitively. And a good one at that.