Bear Stearns & Co, the New York-based, stockbroking and investment company, has established a software development centre in Dublin, which will employ more than 100 people over the next two years.
The new facility is part of an IDA backed investment of $500,000 and recruitment of staff, mainly computer programmers, has already started.
Meanwhile a further 150 jobs are to be announced today by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, in a further software project being established as a joint venture between German bank Dresdner and German firm Norcom in Dublin.
The Bear Stearns software centre will handle the clearance, portfolio and accounting applications for Bear Stearns businesses internationally. The company says the Dublin centre may also handle the same functions for Bear Stearns' operations in Asia and Latin America at a later stage.
The software development centre is the second operation to be established in Dublin by Bear Stearns. Last year Bear Stearns Bank was established here and is engaged in non-US based capital markets activities.
The company says the main reason for establishing in the Republic is the "availability of high quality programming talent and the positive business environment which currently exists in Ireland".
Bear Stearns & Co is a subsidiary of the Bear Stearns Companies Inc which has total capital resources of $14.8 billion. The subsidiary's business includes equities, fixed income sales and trading, derivatives, foreign exchange and asset management.
Mr Philip Stern, senior managing director of IT in Bear Stearns in New York said while there is a shortage of programmers in Dublin, the situation is worse in the United States. The company will form links with universities here as part of its recruitment drive.
The management team for the facility will be American initially, said Mr Stern, but the company intends to recruit Irish management in a few months.
