British mortgage bank Halifax confirmed yesterday it would create up to 1,500 jobs over the next four years in a new Belfast-based call centre.

The new jobs, 750 in the first year, will more than double Halifax's call centre capacity as it meets demand for telephone banking and an expected rise in Internet-related services.

The call centre, Halifax's second, will cost £45 million sterling (€69.5 million), but it will receive a grant from the British government of £16 million. Additionally, Halifax expected to spend about £15£16 million a year on staff costs, the bank's general manager, Mr Dick Spelman, said.

The high-technology centre will be fully operational early in 2001 and will give the bank a new platform from which to develop and distribute a diversified stream of products, including insurance.

The Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, said the new jobs would be accessible to all sections of the community and would give people the chance to acquire a range of financial services and customer-related skills, including those related to e-commerce.

Mr Spelman said Halifax had chosen Belfast as the site for the new call centre because of the relatively cheap and abundant labour supply.

The investment is one of the biggest ever attracted by Northern Ireland's Industrial Development Board.

The bank plans to open an online Internet banking facility in October.

Most British banks have or are in the process of moving retail operations to large call centres outside London, enabling them to cut costs and increase efficiency as demand for telephone and Internet banking grows.

Last week, Abbey National, another building society-turned-bank, said it was hiring 672 staff for its new flagship call centre in Belfast to meet a sharp increase in demand.