US financial services group State Street International has announced plans to expand its Irish workforce by 10 per cent.

The bank, which employs around 650 people at operations in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and Kilkenny this week began a campaign to recruit an additional 60 staff.

State Street is the largest provider in the growing fund servicing industry in Ireland, and claims to account for 21 per cent of the $1 trillion (€823 billion) business. The industry employs 6,000 people in Ireland, mostly at the IFSC, servicing complex global investment fund products.

The industry's clients are hedge fund and investment fund managers.

Gavin Nangle, head of business development at State Street International, said the bank was recruiting "actively across a range of functions in both the IFSC and Kilkenny to support continuing growth of the business a both in terms of attracting new clients and enhancing the business from existing clients.

"The industry's success is based upon its ability to attract and retain quality staff and to provide appropriate employment needs," said Mr Nangle.

State Street's first came to Dublin in the mid-1990S, when it established a small funds servicing alliance with Bank of Ireland.

Massive expansion came in early 2003, when the US group bought the global securities business of Deutsche Bank and inherited the German bank's sizable Dublin funds business.

The job creation will provide a boost to the IFSC, which has been the subject of critical comment in some sections of the US media following an investigation into bogus insurance contracts by BIG subsidiary Cologne Re.