Despite the fall out from the credit crunch, UK banking group Barclays is planning to add 1500 staff to its newly-established technology facility in Singapore over the next five years.
According to a report by Singapore daily The Straits Times, the bank has already hired around 110 local staff - including engineers and IT professionals - and plans to add another 300-400 staff by the end of next year. Barclays expects to have added 1500 new hires at the unit in three to five years' time.
Speaking to Straits Times reporters at the opening of the new technology centre, Frits Seegers, chief executive of Barclays' global retail and commercial banking unit, said despite the on-going financial turmoil, Barclays sees this as a good time to expand.
The new jobs are in addition to the 2500 staff currently employed in Barclays' investment banking and wealth management businesses in Singapore.
Barclays said earlier this year that it was cutting almost two thousand technology jobs in the UK over the next couple of years and offshoring the work to "centres of excellence" in Singapore, India and Hungary.
The bank has also cut salaries for IT contractors working across its operations by around 10%.
1,500 new jobs for Barclays here - The Straits Times