Brevan Howard mostly cut portfolio managers from this team

Hedge fund Brevan Howard is making another round of job cuts, but some of its 1,000 employees are more susceptible to dismissal than others.

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Bloomberg reported earlier today that 80% of the cuts afflicted back office and technology staff and that only around 20 portfolio managers and traders have gone.

Brevan Howard declined to comment for this article, but we understand that its portfolio manager and trader cuts focused almost entirely on the systematic macro team as the fund allocated risk to other strategies. The lowest performing systematic macro portfolio managers are being let go. 

Most of the layoffs, however, are afflicting the middle office technology staff. Having invested in building up infrastructure systems in recent years, the firm now needs fewer staff to maintain them.  

This is the second round of cuts made at Brevan Howard this year, after the firm laid off around 10 underperforming portfolio managers last month. It has 170 portfolio managers and other risk-takers after the cuts.

Brevan Howard has hired heavily in recent years. It increased total headcount from 150 to 1,000 people between 2019 and 2023 as assets under management went from $6bn to $35bn. While the firm is trimming its exposure to systematic macro and cutting risk-takers there, it continues to add talent across areas like systematic equities, digital assets and relative value bond investing. 

Most of the cuts are understood to have happened in London, New York and Hong Kong.

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