Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.
Compliance February 29, 2024
William Birdthistle Leaves SEC Post, to Be Replaced by Natasha Vij Greiner
Birdthistle greatly influenced many proposals and rules affecting advisers, including the names rule and the predictive analytics proposal.
Reported by Paul Mulholland
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday that William Birdthistle, the director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, will leave the regulator. He will be replaced by Natasha Vij Greiner, currently the deputy director of the Division of Examinations, effective March 8.
The Division of Investment Management regulates investment advisers and companies, such as mutual funds and other products used by retail investors. Birdthistle first joined the SEC in December 2021.
Birdthistle was known for his support of liquidity management reforms to money market funds and open-end funds, and he was an advocate for the swing pricing and hard close proposal which is still pending. He also advocated for the new SEC names rule, which reforms how funds named after a strategy, such as “value,” “growth” or “ESG” are regulated.
In addition, he helped write and pushed for the SEC’s proposals on cybersecurity, custody and predictive analytics, as well the finalized rules on marketing and private fund advisers.
Perhaps the most controversial proposal for which Birdthistle has advocated has been the predictive analytics proposal, which requires advisers to neutralize and eliminate conflicts related to a wide range of technologies. Birdthistle acknowledged in a House of Representatives committee hearing in July 2023 that the breadth of the covered technologies was a concern and invited commenters to recommend how to limit the definition.
Replacement Greiner has been “National Associate Director of the Investment Adviser/Investment Company (IA/IC) examination program, which includes the Private Funds Unit, and is the Associate Director of the Home Office IA/IC examination program,” according to the SEC, and has been with the SEC for 22 years in various roles, including acting chief counsel and assistant chief counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets.
Greiner earned a J.D. from the Catholic University of America and a B.S. from James Madison University.
The agency noted that Birdthistle will be returning to teaching; he had previously been a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.