NYSE expected to announce major Belfast investment

The New York Stock Exchange is expected to announce today that it is setting up a financial services outpost in Belfast.

The move is likely to create around 200 highly-paid jobs and will be a major boost towards attracting other US investment to the North.

The NYSE bought a Belfast software firm last year and the new venture to be announced today is being seen as a major vote of confidence in the peace process.

It comes just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met unionist and republican leaders at Stormont, hailing the establishment of power-sharing and the example it showed to the rest of the world.