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Formerly the domain of indigenous banks – Ulster, Northern, Bank of Ireland and
First Trust, the significant economic growth of recent years has led to new
entrants in the Northern Ireland banking market – Anglo Irish, Bank of
Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cooperative and HSBC. The main
building societies had always a high street presence in Northern Ireland and
recent years have seen significant expansion from Halifax, Abbey, Alliance and
Leicester and Nationwide.
Significant growth has also been experienced in financial services back office
operations with a number of processing, fulfilment and high value customer
service centres being established. The draw of Belfast is undoubtedly its
young, articulate and well educated population; combined with the city’s
excellent telecoms infrastructure and ready availability of attractive property
solutions.
First to draw on these assets was Prudential, closely followed by Abbey and
more recently Halifax. US insurance giants Liberty Mutual and All State were
the first to tap into the high quality computing talent being developed by
Belfast’s two universities, with both companies establishing high value added
software development centres in the city. This is a trend now being followed by
the UK institutions.
From front office to back office, Belfast offers the Financial Services Sector
exciting opportunities to grow new business, improve customer service and
enhance competitiveness.
Further/Higher Education
- Two first class universities – The Queen’s University of Belfast and the University of Ulster.
- World-renowned University research base in ICT related areas.
- The total number of enrolments in higher education courses at NI Institutions in 2003 was 64,430.
- On average 3,500 students graduate each year with degrees in IT and a further 3,000 receive IT training.
- 11,000 students are enrolled in finance related courses each year.
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