By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to hire Dalia Blass to lead the division that regulates asset managers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Blass, an attorney at Ropes & Gray LLP, is an SEC alumnus who previously worked in the Investment Management division that she is being tapped to lead.
She could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Investment Management division is responsible for oversight of mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and exchange-traded funds, among others.
The office in recent years has had the job of writing crucial rules, including major structural reforms for money market mutual funds in 2014 that aimed to reduce the risk of runs on the funds by panicked investors in the event of a market crisis.
The pending appointment was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Blass' husband, David Blass, most recently served as general counsel for the Investment Company Institute, the leading mutual fund trade group.
He is stepping down from that post this month to join the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Llp as a partner. He also previously worked as an assistant director in the Investment Management unit.
It is currently being led by David Grim, an attorney who has spent most of his career at the SEC.
An SEC spokesman declined to comment.