US-based financial services group announces NI centre

Invest NI has secured an investment which will see Wombat, the US-based financial services group, establish its global centre of software engineering excellence in Northern Ireland.

Wombat’s software transfers stock exchange data to remote trading floors in banks at high speed, improving the efficiency and accuracy of automated trading systems.

The investment will enable Wombat to focus on product development and customer support, with a longer term view to the Belfast site emerging as a base for European sales.

Welcoming the investment Ian Murphy, Director of Creative and Design-Based Industries, Invest NI said: “Wombat’s commitment reinforces Northern Ireland’s global reputation as a key business base for international entrepreneurs wanting to exploit market opportunities in Europe. Invest NI has established support for these entrepreneurs with global potential, under our accelerating entrepreneurship strategy.

The project will further enhance Northern Ireland’s reputation as a world class centre for financial services software and we hope it will act as a catalyst for further projects in the sector.”

Danny Moore Chief Operations Officer, Wombat Financial Software, said: “Wombat intends to develop a world class engineering centre of excellence in Belfast to support our growing customer base both in Europe and the financial centre’s in the North East US.

“We were searching for a location with talented engineers, most notably with C/C++ and Unix skills, but equally important customer facing experience, excellent English language communication skills, work ethic and a service ethos. Belfast scored very high on all these fronts.

Wombat joins a growing number of internationally respected organisations such as Citigroup, Oracle and Microsoft which have recently announced the establishment of software development centres in Northern Ireland.

(MB/SP)