Ex-Morgan Stanley and UBS traders just left Brevan Howard

The exodus at Brevan Howard continues, with two of its most senior traders departing from the hedge fund in recent weeks.

Riyaz Daya, the former global head of short-term interest rates at UBS in London and Richard Oliver, a managing director who ran the same division at Morgan Stanley before joining Brevan Howard, have now left, according to sources close to the situation.

Both men joined Brevan Howard from the sell-side in 2013, as it pushed into more fixed income products, and are among the most senior traders at the firm.

Daya headed up short-term interest rates trading at Brevan Howard. Meanwhile, Richard Oliver was a senior trader who was also in charge of Brevan’s new training programme that looked to foster trading talent in-house, rather than relying on recruits from investment banks.

Brevan Howard said that it was cutting around 50 people – or 10% of its staff – earlier this month, but said that it would focus on reducing headcount in support functions.

However, front office employees have been departing anyway. Akash Gupta, the former co-founder of hedge fund Portman Capital who joined Brevan Howard in April, has also left. So have Christian Simonds, who heads the marketing function, and investor relations professional Tara Skinner.

Brevan Howard has also been hiring money management staff, but the pace of senior exits has increased in recent months as it battles lacklustre performance and investor outflows. It has around 400 employees.

Brevan Howard declined to comment.