While its reputation as a fintech hub has been developing for years, recent efforts by industry stakeholders in both the Republic and Northern Ireland have boosted Belfast’s reputation.
Belfast has been named one of the best cities outside of London for a career in fintech by UK trading company CMC Markets.
The company analyzed the latest data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, published in March 2022. It looked at financial institutions in 342 UK districts, excluding London, and the latest available population statistics.
Belfast came out as one of the top fintech locations, as well as several other locations in the UK, including Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester.
Belfast was the only entrant in the list of 15 places located on the island of Ireland. According to the report, Belfast has 150 fintech companies and a population of 342,560 people.
While its reputation as a fintech hub has been developing for years, recent efforts by industry stakeholders in both the Republic and Northern Ireland have boosted Belfast’s reputation.
Over the past two years, FinTechNI, the organization representing the sector in Northern Ireland, has been working to draw up a strategy to propel the region’s £392 million fintech sector onto the international stage.
“Our ambition is to supercharge the sector by 2024 by attracting a further £25m in foreign direct investment, establishing more than 10 new international partnerships and bringing our current total of 74 fintech companies to more than 100,” Andrew Jenkins, Fintech Envoy for Northern Ireland, wrote in 2021 after the strategy’s publication.
As well as the UK Treasury recognizing Northern Ireland as a key fintech hub, Irish industry players are also appreciating its lucrative appeal.
Fintech Corridor (TFC) is an organization whose aim is to drive cooperation between fintech in the Republic and in the north. Dublin is Ireland’s main fintech hub, its equivalent to Belfast.
TFC is doing a lot of work to ensure there is a pipeline of skilled workers ready to enter the fintech sector. Earlier this year it teamed up with Dublin City University to launch a course in financial intelligence and technology. Last year it partnered with Ulster University to boost fintech education.
These education initiatives and industry strategies are clearly paying off as many companies have either opened offices or started up in Belfast in the last two years.
Here are just a few of the fintech companies that have chosen Belfast and Northern Ireland as a place to expand and hire talent.
Bank of London
The London-headquartered clearinghouse and transaction bank announced in June that it is creating 232 jobs in Belfast. The roles will be based on the new competence center in the city.
Recruitment has already begun and the positions include payment managers and software engineers. Bank of London has its own patented technology. Once all the jobs are in place, they will generate an estimated £20 million in annual wages for the local economy.
Alternatives Technology
Fintech has had a presence in Belfast since 2014, where it employs around 150 people. Belfast is the company’s largest base of all its global locations, and the CEO is based there.
Last October, Options Technology said the team was growing again, adding 150 new recruits over the next 18 months. The news came the day after the company bought the IT company Activ Financial.
FinTru
FinTru, a rettch company based in Belfast, recently expanded into Portugal and opened a new global customer delivery center in Porto.
That office will see the creation of 500 new jobs at the company over the next few years. It comes after the company established a new center in Letterkenny, a move which created 300 jobs.
Payroc
The US payment processing company announced plans to expand into Northern Ireland last year. The expansion was supported by £445,000 from Invest NI.
As part of the company’s expansion in the region, it created 75 new roles in areas from software development to data analytics.
The roles were advertised as external, meaning applications were open to people across Northern Ireland.
Light years
The Belfast-headquartered fintech software company said it doubled its workforce in the city following a £1 million investment.
Lightyear hired 12 people as part of its global expansion plans. In addition to the Belfast office, it has an office in Australia.
Computer science
The Ulster University spin-out specializes in data management for the financial sector. Following a £2m fundraising led by Par Equity, Datactics invested £2.3m in R&D and skills development, leading to the creation of 18 jobs.
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