ITG makes job cuts in the U.S. as part of restructuring plan

So much for electronic trading jobs as a hedge against being laid off. Investment Technology Group (ITG), an agency brokerage and fintech firm specializing in electronic trading and portfolio management for hedge funds and asset management firms, has been cutting headcount. That includes a round of layoffs in the U.S. at the end of last month.

The New York-based personnel laid off in March include Heather Evans, the chief marketing officer, and Rajendra Jain, a managing director of electronic trading, as well as several other senior e-trading executives.

An ITG spokesperson declined to comment.

Evans is a former investment banker who previously worked at Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan. She was the CMO of markets and investor services at the latter before joining ITG in 2016.

Jain had been working at ITG for almost 15 years at the time of his dismissal last month.

In July 2016, ITG CEO Frank Troise announced plans to make 60 hires in customer service/client coverage, product management and technology development, but indicated that the firm would be focused on expense discipline going forward, particularly in the U.S., as part of a strategic operating plan that included $40m worth of investments in people and technology across its four key business segments: liquidity, execution, workflow technology and analytics.

ITG’s headcount has gone down steadily ever since then across most of the firm’s other groups. As of December 31, it had 934 personnel globally, compared to 956 employees at the end of 2016.

At the end of 2017, it had made 55 new hires, including quant researchers, data scientists and developers, out of the 60 it planned to add, so approximately 70 people were let go over the previous year and a half, not including those who left of their own volition and were not replaced. All layoffs have been in the U.S. business.

ITG went public in 1994 and spun out of Jefferies in 1999. It had approximately 1,270 employees in 2008 after making several acquisitions.

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