Legal & General to merge investment units to cut costs
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026

Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026

Legal & General merges its investment units to streamline operations and reduce costs, leading to job cuts. David Barron will lead the new unit.
LONDON (Reuters) - British insurer Legal & General (L&G) will merge two of its investment units as part of efforts to simplify the business and cut costs, the company said on Friday.
As part of the shake-up there will be an undisclosed number of job losses in its asset management division. Howie Li, L&G's London-based global head of Index and ETFs, is set to leave, the firm said.
The FTSE 100-listed company will combine its index funds unit and exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) division to create a more global team, to be led by internal hire David Barron.
L&G runs one of Europe's largest asset management businesses, overseeing around 1.1 trillion pounds ($1.5 trillion) of assets. CEO Antonio Simoes recently hired ex-PGIM executive Eric Adler to run the overall asset management division.
The changes will result in around 80 roles being cut, the Financial Times earlier reported. The Times newspaper had previously reported 70 job cuts in asset management.
"We believe these changes will further strengthen our ability to focus on growth opportunities and execute on our long-term strategy," an L&G spokesperson said of the changes in index funds and ETFs.
L&G under Simoes has sought to scale up in higher-profit markets such as private assets, while trimming roles to manage costs.
($1 = 0.7419 pounds)
(Reporting by Aatrayee Chatterjee in Bengaluru and Iain Withers in London; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Sahal Muhammed and Louise Heavens)
The merger aims to simplify the business and cut costs, creating a more global team.
The changes will result in around 80 roles being cut in the asset management division.
The new team will be led by internal hire David Barron.
Legal & General oversees around 1.1 trillion pounds ($1.5 trillion) of assets.
L&G is focusing on scaling up in higher-profit markets such as private assets while managing costs.
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