Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced Monday that she would step down two years before the end of her term, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to reshape the way Wall Street is regulated.

The resignation creates a massive opportunity for Trump early in his term to make changes to investor protections and other Wall Street regulations, part of what is widely expected to be a broad effort by the new administration to scale back what Republicans consider cumbersome federal rules that slow economic growth.

"In the long term, it is going to be a big tilt towards free markets," said Edward Mills, a policy analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets.

Trump and his advisers have taken aim at President Obama's main regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis - the Dodd-Frank Act, which tightened oversight of the financial industry. The most visible target is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency that has pursued stricter rules governing debt collection, payday loans and overdraft fees.