About 250 jobs are to be created in Waterford over the next five years through an expansion of its Irish operations by financial services multinational BISYS.
Announcing the development yesterday, Minster for Enterprise Micheál Martin said a cluster of financial services companies was "beginning to take shape" in the southeast.
"With financial services companies in Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford, the southeast region is quickly emerging as one of the preferred locations for the financial services industry outside Dublin," he said.
BISYS Hedge Fund Services was a "welcome addition" to this group, he added.
The company's new Waterford office will provide services to the hedge funds industry internationally, concentrating on the provision of fund accounting services.
It will report to the company's Dublin office, which employs 400 and handles a range of financial services for client companies worldwide.
All positions at the company are considered to have a high skill requirement and the majority of staff have third-level qualifications.
BISYS Hedge Fund Services president Ronan Daly said the decision to expand the operation beyond Dublin was strongly influenced by the company's experiences to date in Ireland.
"Our Irish team has consistently demonstrated its ability to deliver world-class standards of service to our clients," Mr Daly said.
"Ireland has been identified as the premier growth centre in the fund industry in Europe with 30 per cent of worldwide hedge funds administered in Ireland," he said.
"The experienced skill base and enabling infrastructure strengthens Ireland's position as the leading choice in this activity."
The company is part of the BISYS Group, which has headquarters in New York and employs 5,200 people worldwide.
Its decision to open a Waterford operation was welcomed by local interests.
The Mayor of Waterford, Fine Gael councillor Hilary Quinlan, said the development was a "major step forward" for the city and surrounding region.
He said IDA Ireland had been the subject of "legitimate criticism" in the southeast in the past, but deserved credit for its role in securing "this important investment for our city".
"A particularly welcome aspect of this project is that the majority of the positions to be created by BISYS will be suitable for graduates.
"I would anticipate strong ties developing between the company and the School of Business at Waterford Institute of Technology," he said.
WIT director, Prof Kieran Byrne, confirmed that the institute would work closely with BISYS to ensure its skills needs were met.
"Cllr Quinlan said it was also significant that the company had chosen to site its Waterford operation at the IDA technology park at Butlerstown North.
This made it the first of "what we must hope will be many major employers to locate their operations at that site, to which access will be greatly improved shortly with the opening of our new outer ring road".
