Top economist at US SEC set to depart this spring

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The top economist at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who helped turn around the agency's struggling think-tank unit and elevate the stature of economic analysis in rulemaking, intends to leave the SEC this spring, according to an internal letter seen by Reuters.

Mr Craig Lewis, who took over the helm of what is now called the SEC's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis in May 2011, told his colleagues in a Dec 20 letter that he plans to return to his academic position at Vanderbilt University in the spring.

In the letter, he asks his colleagues to suggest names of possible replacements.

"The hope is to fill the position no later than the summer of 2014, but we would like to find someone who might be willing to start sooner than that," Mr Lewis wrote.

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