Business

FinTrU to create over 600 jobs and open new Derry office in £38m expansion

Announcing the new jobs for Belfast and Derry are Alastair Hamilton, CEO of Invest NI and Darragh McCarthy, CEO of FinTrU
Announcing the new jobs for Belfast and Derry are Alastair Hamilton, CEO of Invest NI and Darragh McCarthy, CEO of FinTrU Announcing the new jobs for Belfast and Derry are Alastair Hamilton, CEO of Invest NI and Darragh McCarthy, CEO of FinTrU

BELFAST financial services firm FinTrU is to create 605 jobs and establish a new Derry office as part of a £38 million expansion.

FinTrU, which set up in Belfast back in 2014, is to almost quadruple staff numbers over the next five years as the company continues its rapid growth in Northern Ireland.

A total of 300 jobs for graduates and professionals in the financial services industry are to be created in Belfast, with a further 305 to be based at a new office in Derry. In total the new roles will generate over £15m a year in additional wages for the local economy, with the average annual salary between £20,000 and £25,000. It is also projected that the major investment will generate an additional £20m in new export sales for the company.

Darragh McCarthy, FinTrU founder and CEO said the expansion has been driven by the success of the company, which now employs over 240 people in The Gasworks and Pakenham Street.

"FinTrU set up in Belfast originally in 2014 and the plan was to create 80 in jobs in three years and we ended up creating 80 jobs in 21 months. We then went back in early 2017 and again with support from Invest NI and the Department for the Economy went to create 160 jobs in five years and we've created 160 jobs in just over 12 months," he told The Irish News

"We have a wonderful client base, but we've also been able to develop and grow our local talent here to incredibly successful levels. We currently run 100 per cent capacity and see huge opportunities for our business."

Mr McCarthy described the Derry expansion as the "next logical stepping stone" for the business and believes there is scope for further locations in the north in the future.

"This is a prime example of us being able to get established in Ireland via Belfast and ultimately look further afield across Northern Ireland for subsequent expansion."

Looking ahead he is confident the financial services company can continue on its path of rapid growth.

"FinTrU has aspirations to be one of the largest employers in Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland and we're going to do everything we can to get there," Mr McCarthy added.

Invest NI has offered £3.2m of support for the new jobs and the Department for the Economy has offered £2.4m of support through its Assured Skills Programme.

Invest NI chief executive, Alastair Hamilton said he is "very confident" FinTrU will deliver on the 605 new jobs and hopes to make further job announcements from other companies later this year.

"Our pipeline is very strong, both in terms of indigenous company growth, but also in terms of inward investment as we enter this year and undoubtedly I would expect we will see more announcements both across the summer and into the early autumn as some of those projects come to fruition."

Referring to the new Derry office, which will be in a city centre location and open for the first intake on October 1, Mr Hamilton described it as a "landmark day".

Noel Lavery, Permanent Secretary at the Department for the Economy, highlighted the strong relationship between FinTrU and its pre-employment skills training programme, ‘Assured Skills’ as a key factor in the expansion.

“175 of the current FinTrU staff complement are former Assured Skills Academy graduates, highlighting the impressive talent we have in Northern Ireland. It is planned that, over the next five years, 500 of the 605 jobs announced today will be delivered through a series of future Assured Skills academies, providing high quality employment opportunities for graduates in the growing financial services sector.”

FinTrU provides regulatory resourcing services, including legal, risk, compliance, KYC, operations and consultancy, to investment banks and other financial institutions