Natalie Baylis, who joined GAM and its group management board as Group Head of Compliance in June 2018, has decided to step down from her job "for personal reasons" and will leave the Swiss asset management firm at the end of October.

David Kemp, who was previously General Counsel, Asset and Wealth Management at Schroders and has extensive industry and regulatory experience, will join GAM on 1 October as interim Group Head of Compliance and will reporting to the group CEO, Alexander Friedman. He will work closely with Rachel Wheeler, previously General Counsel at Aviva Investors, who took up her position as Group General Counsel and member of the group management board on 3 September.

Baylis' resignation has nothing to do with the recent scandal that has engulfed GAM, according to the firm's press office.

In response to recent media speculation, GAM has stated that it started to investigate Tim Haywood, the investment director of its absolute return bond fund funds, "following concerns raised by an internal whistle-blower" in November last year, hiring a law firm to help it. In March 2018, the tipster contacted the Financial Conduct Authority. This, at least, is the official timeline.

Haywood, whom GAM suspended in the summer, stands accused of failure to "conduct or evidence sufficient due diligence" and failure to make accessible internal records of documents in certain instances. The investigators also thought that he might have breached the company’s signatory policy, used his personal email for work purposes and flouted the company’s gifts and entertainment policy.