Dalia Blass is stepping down as director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of investment management, the agency said Tuesday.
Sarah ten Siethoff, the division's associate director for its rule-making office, will become the acting director upon Mr. Blass' departure in January. An SEC spokeswoman could not provide a specific date for the transition.
Ms. Blass has led the division since 2017 and under her leadership it finalized more than 70 regulatory initiatives affecting investment companies and investment advisers, the SEC said.
"In every action, Dalia has made it abundantly clear that her top priority is the interests of our long-term Main Street investors, who often rely on investment products to effectively establish and maintain a diversified investment portfolio," SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said in a news release. "Her experience and deep knowledge of the industry and the federal securities laws have been invaluable as we've modernized outdated regulations and navigated a global pandemic, all while seeking to increase the industry's resiliency and accommodate investor-oriented innovation."
Ms. Blass has played a key role in those regulatory initiatives, the release said, including the SEC's standard of conduct package, commonly known as Reg BI for its centerpiece best-interest standard, which went into effect June 30. The regulation aims to compel brokers to put clients' financial interests ahead of their own and requires them to mitigate financial conflicts.
"It has been the honor of a lifetime to work together with the women and men of investment management and the commission to modernize the existing regulatory framework and find forward-looking solutions that solve not only today's issues, but anticipate those to come," said Ms. Blass in the news release.
Details on Ms. Blass' future plans could not be immediately learned.
