The head of mergers and acquisitions at Legal & General, responsible for seven bolt-on acquisitions in the past 20 months, is to leave at the end of the year, the firm said today.

The departure of Wadham Downing, who will stand down as group M&A and strategy director at the end of 2014 before leaving the group entirely at the end of June next year, comes after his launch and development of a growth-by-acquisition strategy at L&G during 2013 and 2014.