The department was established in 1963. It was initially called the Department of Commerce and consisted of four divisions:
banking,
insurance,
real estate, as well as
savings and
loan. The state fire marshal became one of the department's divisions in May 1973, before a consumer affair division was also added in July the same year. In 1975, the credit union division became part of the department, and in 1979, the housing and manufactured housing divisions also joined the department. The department's structure underwent several other changes before finally settling into twelve divisions as of 2021. == Divisions ==