The U.S. Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, welcomed today’s announcement by Citi that it will expand its current operations in Belfast by creating 500 new jobs across its legal and compliance, operations and technology functions.

“Today’s announcement is another landmark moment for Northern Ireland which underlines once again that the region is one of the most attractive in the world for inward investment at the present time," said Envoy Kelly.

He added: “I am particularly pleased that today's announcement involves Citi and a great representative in Bill Mills, the company's leader in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, because they have been huge supporters of Northern Ireland and also the U.S. Government's economic mission in the region.  Only a few weeks ago at the U.S. - NI Economic Conference in Washington which I had the pleasure of organizing on behalf of Secretary Clinton, Bill played a very prominent role as an advocate for Northern Ireland, including chairing a special roundtable discussion on financial services.  Bill and his company's leadership is demonstrated by the additional commitment which is being announced today and we all look forward to working further with him and his colleagues in the months ahead.”

"Today's announcement brings to 750 the number of new jobs announced for Northern Ireland in the past few weeks by U.S.-based or headquartered companies and is further evidence of the growing transatlantic investment corridor between the United States and Northern Ireland.  I look forward to building on this momentum by continuing to work with Minister Foster and Invest NI to showcase Northern Ireland across the United States, and I am optimistic that in the coming months we will see even further positive news for the region,” concluded Envoy Kelly.

Citi has been operating in Belfast since 2004 and today’s announcement will bring its total number of employees in Northern Ireland to over 1,400.