| Regional centre profile: Northern Trust, Limerick |
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| Limerick was chosen as the location for Northern Trust’s satellite office. Influencing the decision were its sizable population, central mid-west regional location, its excellent transport infrastructure, and its access to a highly-skilled labour pool. |
In first quarter 2007 Northern Trust established a satellite office in Limerick. The expansion represented a multi-million Euro investment in people, systems and property to create the infrastructure Northern Trust needed then - and in the future - to support growth and meet the needs of our clients. ‘Northern Trust is ranked among the top fund administrators in Ireland in the latest Lipper report, which named Northern Trust number one in terms of number of funds serviced in 2007,’ said Gerry Brady, managing director of Northern Trust’s Irish operations.
With the help of IDA Ireland, Northern Trust spent hundreds of hours doing due diligence, analysis and property reviews. In the end, Limerick was chosen for a number of reasons, including its sizable population, central mid-west regional location, excellent transport infrastructure that ensures the city is well-connected to other major locations within and outside of Ireland, and its access to a highly-skilled labour pool. Strong third-level educational institutions like the University of Limerick and Limerick Institute of Technology, among others, give Northern Trust good access to recruits needed for its high quality, high-touch operation.
With a stable job market and lower living costs, Limerick is also attractive to candidates interested in moving out of Dublin and, for many, offers the opportunity to move back home while being able to continue working in the specialist financial services sector.
In the beginning, 19 staff moved to Limerick and, initially, the focus was on offering traditional fund accounting and financial reporting. However, one year later, Limerick provides a vastly expanded service, operating as a scaled-down, mirror-version of Dublin, with elements of more than a dozen separate functions. At the close of its first year, Limerick now has a staff of 97.
Northern Trust has expanded its premises and plan to create up to 300 jobs in total in Limerick in the next few years alone.
Ensuring depth of expertise and a good mix of experience amongst our staff has required careful attention, which Northern Trust has met by adding permanent training staff to the Limerick office and by periodically bringing in secondees from other Northern Trust locations. Providing career paths for talented employees around the world is a key element of Northern Trust’s staff development programme.
Northern Trust’s Limerick operation is now a successful part of its worldwide fund servicing network which has operation centres in Dublin, London, Luxembourg, Jersey, Guernsey, Singapore, Bangalore and Chicago. In Limerick, the firm has built up a high calibre team; it is running successful training programmes for existing and new employees; it has high standard office space and professional facilities. |
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| Article appeared in the April 2008 issue.
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