This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Financial services jobs for Glasgow
20/11/2006
Barclays Wealth, the UK's leading wealth manager, today announced that it is to create 500 jobs in Glasgow over the next three years.
Already based at four sites in Glasgow, Barclays Wealth has secured four floors in the city's Aurora building to house its expanding workforce.
The company, which first came to Glasgow with the launch of Barclays Stockbrokers in 1986, is a top ten employer in Glasgow with 1,200 staff who are among the the 29,000 now working in the city's financial services industry.
Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen said:
"I am delighted to welcome Barclays Wealth's latest project to Scotland which will help to create 500 new jobs. I am also pleased that the Scottish Executive has helped this expansion come to Glasgow with a Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant of £4.2 million.
"The creation of these new jobs presents hundreds of people with the opportunity to work in quality jobs and allows Barclays Wealth to take advantage of the area's skilled workforce
"Barclays Wealth's decision to bring these jobs to Glasgow further strengthens Scotland's position as one of Europe's top financial centres. Since the turn of the decade, the financial services sector in Scotland has grown by 36 per cent, significantly faster than the UK financial services industry as a whole. I wish Barclays every success for the future."
Frank McGarahan, Chief Operating Officer of Braclays Wealth, said:
"Barclays Wealth has ambitious growth plans and we need to build on our existing infrastructure capability to meet the demands of our growing client base and increased global presence.
"We aim to add 500 roles within the next three years which we believe will be critical in enabling us to deliver a first class service to our clients.
"Barclays Wealth has had a strong presence as an employer in Glasgow for over 20 years and we are delighted to be building on this success and demonstrating our commitment through our expansion in the City. We are grateful to the Scottish Executive and SDI for their unstinting support and look forward to a long and successful relationship with them going forward.
"Glasgow is extremely accessible, with direct links to many of the financial services centres within which Barclays Wealth operates and that combined with its high quality, highly-educated work force and the fact that we already have a successful, well-established business here, make Glasgow an obvious choice for the expansion of Barclays Wealth's operations."
Martin Togneri, Chief Executive of Scottish Development International which worked with the company on its plans, said:
"This is a great success in what has already been another remarkable year for Glasgow's International Financial Services District.
"Over 29,000 people now work in the financial services sector in Glasgow and to date £750 million of investment has been secured for the IFSD with more than 90 per cent of this coming from the private sector.
"Scotland's profile in world financial markets has been greatly enhanced this year thanks to increasing investments by blue chip companies such as Barclays."
Barclays Wealth is part of the Barclays Group, one of the largest financial services groups in the world by market capitalisation.