Boost for Belfast as Citigroup creates 145 jobs in IT centre

INTERNATIONAL financial services giant, Citigroup is set to significantly expand its Irish operations by adding a further 145 jobs in Belfast at a new information technology centre, which will support customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Citigroup employs more than 700 people at its Belfast Centre for Excellence, located over two offices in the city’s Titanic Quarter.

The centre — which includes technology, technology infrastructure, operations and legal and compliance divisions — opened in 2005 with the initial placement of 375 jobs.

Another 185 jobs were added in the technology department a year later, before 100 jobs were added to the operations division and another 40 were added to the legal and compliance arm last year.

The new jobs are understood to be in the operations division. The overall expansion in the North is being assisted by a £2 million (€2.51m) grant aid investment by Northern Irish business development agency, Invest NI.

Citigroup has signed lease agreements on two of the three new Gateway Office buildings at the Titanic Quarter.

“Since 2004 we have established technology, operations and legal and compliance functions in Belfast, creating a total of 861 new jobs. The success of those functions has been an important factor behind this latest decision,” said Cathy Munro, managing director of Citigroup’s securities and banking operations for the EMEA region.

Citigroup employs a further 2,200 people in Dublin — an employee base which was boosted by around 600 through last year’s takeover of hedge fund administration company, Bisys.