Donaldson, who turns 74 today, told Bush that ''the time has come for me to step down and return to the private sector and my family." He said he would leave the agency June 30.
Donaldson said a great deal had been done in the past 2 1/2 years to restore investor confidence, including implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which tightened rules on corporations to make them more accountable.
A former head of the New York Stock Exchange and a veteran Wall Street executive, Donaldson took over at the SEC in 2003 after Harvey Pitt quit.
Donaldson's agenda was particularly felt in Boston mutual fund and hedge fund communities -- and especially at Fidelity Investments. One of his chief accomplishments was a new rule requiring that the chairman of a mutual fund's board be independent. Fidelity chairman Edward C. ''Ned" Johnson III bitterly opposed the measure. Fidelity continues to be scrutinized as the SEC conducts a far-reaching investigation of the entertainment and business practices of its stock-trading desk.
The SEC under Donaldson has levied large fines on other Boston mutual fund companies for improper trading and sale practices, including Putnam Investments, the Columbia funds unit of the former FleetBoston Financial Corp., and MFS Investment Management.
Globe staff writer Andrew Caffrey contributed to this report.
