THE AMERICAN financial services giant Citigroup is to create a further 145 jobs at its Belfast operations centre. It is the fourth major investment by America's largest bank in Northern Ireland in the last four years.
The new expansion plan will boost Citigroup's total workforce in the North to more than 850 people. Cathy Munro, managing director EMEA securities and banking operations at Citi said the group had established a range of critical functions in the North since its first investment in 2004.
Citigroup now operates technology, operations, legal and compliance functions from its Belfast base. Ms Munro said the group's positive experiences had convinced it to reinvest in Belfast.
"The success of those functions has been an important factor behind this latest decision.
"The strength of the available skills base within Northern Ireland is backed by a strong educational system and has been borne out in our recruitment efforts over the past three years. We are confident such success will continue," she said.
Citi's operations centre is based in the Northern Ireland Science Park in Titanic Quarter in Belfast. As a result of its expansion plans, it intends to lease a further two new office buildings in the quarter.
The Northern Ireland Government is keen to establish the science park as Belfast's answer to Dublin's International Financial Services Centre.
A new initiative unveiled earlier this year by First Minister Peter Robinson and Taoiseach Brian Cowen is designed to support that ambition.
