ED&F Man is shutting its UK equity finance business, Global Investor can reveal. 

The brokerage firm will cease its securities lending and financing offering after a board-level decision at the end of March to close the unit.

The division catered to hedge funds and proprietary trading firms and employed around 15 members of staff.

"We can confirm that we are closing down our equity finance business; this is a commercial and strategic decision that allows us to focus on our core listed exchange business in London," a spokesperson told Global Investor. 

"There are a small number of roles in the equity finance and support teams that are at risk of redundancy.  We are offering all those affected full support throughout this process and we will be looking to redeploy them to other appropriate internal roles, where possible."

The firm's US equity finance unit will remain open for business.

London-based equity finance executives Victoria Foster, ex-Morgan Stanley, and Paul Schofield, ex-ICAP, have been with ED&F Man Capital Markets since 2013.

The firm is well-known for its futures and options division - separate to equity finance - which covers clearing and execution services in interest rate products, equity derivatives, foreign exchange, softs, energy, agriculture and metals.