Danske Bank plans to develop a new customer protection centre in Derry which will carry out due diligence checks on the bank’s personal and business customers in the North, the Republic and London.
The centre, which is expected to create 67 jobs in the city, will help the bank to meet regulatory requirements, from knowing and understanding how customers operate their bank accounts to standard industry practices in respect of anti-money laundering legislation.
Stephen Matchett, Danske Bank's chief financial officer, said the team in Derry will be an "additional resource" and supplement Danske's existing teams in Lithuania and Poland.
Danske also intends to work with the Department of the Economy in the North to launch new “assured skills academies” that will provide training to people for a career in the financial services sector.
“Our successful bid for this new centre to be located here, rather than at one of the Danske Bank Group’s existing European centres, ensures that we remain close to our customer base in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Matchett.
“We have already begun recruiting for this team and for the first academy, with all the roles to be in place by 2020,” he added.
Boost
Danske’s decision to invest in the North has been hailed as a “tremendous boost” for Derry by the president of the city’s chamber of commerce Jennifer McKeever, particularly in light of the numerous bank branch closures seen in the North in the last year.
Invest Northern Ireland is backing the Danske investment project with £234,500 (€260,267) in financial support.
Ms McKeever said: “It’s very significant that Danske Bank has chosen Derry as the location for its new centre rather than consolidating operations in one of its other European centres
“The generation of £1.5 million in salaries from the new customer protection centre will be a tremendous boost to the local economy.”
