The whole of Aviva Investors' structured products solutions team has been claimed as the main victim of the firm's strategic business review and the 'wider restructuring plan to optimise the different businesses' within the insurance company.
"The recent business review considered the ongoing need for the structured product solutions team and concluded that this was not a mainstream business for us going forward, although we will continue to consider opportunistic new business," read an internal Aviva memo seen by SRP.
As reported, a number of structured products professionals at Aviva Investors, including the director of structured solutions, Stephane Rougier, were at risk of redundancy as the firm continued the reorganisation of its activities. The remaining structured products solutions team members - Anna Blecua, Luis de Juan and Arun Patel - have also left the business and "will not be replaced."
According to the memo, Aviva will continue to service all live products issued by the structured product solutions team: "Recognising we have obligations to manage the existing structured products funds, we have downsized the team," it said.
Dhannjay Hirani, head of structured fund management at Aviva Investors, will now be in charge of managing whatever is left of the structured products business and will continue providing products in the advisory arena as part of the joint venture between Aviva Investors and Aviva Life.
Hirani will report to the head of business management at Aviva Investors, Luuk Jacobs, and will be supported by Ray Fuller, portfolio manager, investment solutions at Aviva Investors, who is a former director of structured funds and exotics at UBS Investment Bank.
The departure of the structured products team follows a number of high profile departures in recent months including that of the global head of products at Aviva Investors, Jeremy Soutter; the company's CEO and director of UK collective investors, John Clougherty; the head of European equities, John Botham, and three other fund managers - all as part of the firm's restructuring plan.
Aviva Investors previously announced in January that it would shrink its offerings to UK retail investors, while shedding 160 jobs to "streamline" its operations and "leverage its strengths in key asset classes and prioritise its distribution effort towards the institutional market."
Aviva Investors currently has 35 live products on the SRP database in the UK.