The Directorate of Enforcement was established in the year 1956 with its Headquarters at New Delhi. It is responsible for enforcement of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and certain provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Work relating to investigation and prosecution of cases under the PML has been entrusted to Enforcement Directorate. The Directorate is under the administrative control of Department of Revenue for operational purposes; the policy aspects of the FEMA, its legislation and its amendments are within the purview of the Department of Economic Affairs. Policy issues pertaining to PML Act, however, are the responsibility of the Department of Revenue. Before FEMA became effective (1 June 2000), the Directorate enforced regulations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973.
Shri Sudhir Nath, an officer of the rank of Additional Special is the Director. There are two Special Directors at Headquarters and one Special Director at Mumbai.
The Directorate has 10 Zonal offices each of which is headed by a Deputy Director and 11 sub Zonal Offices each of which is headed by an Assistant Directors
Zonal offices Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Bangalore & Hyderabad
Sub Zonal offices Jaipur, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Varanasi, Guwahati, Calicut, Indore, Nagpur, Patna, Bhubaneshwar & Madurai.