Deutsche Bank is set to deliver the biggest employment boost the city’s finance sector has seen in years by creating 1,000 jobs after a major office move.
The banking giant will move to a huge office at Five Brindleyplace next summer, after growing its workforce to more than 1,000 in the city.
The Post understands the German bank plans to take on a further 1,000 employees and make the Birmingham base a new centre of excellence.
The recently refurbished office will house the firm’s trading floor, as well as sales, trading, structuring and research operations.
Deutsche Bank has become the city’s biggest foreign-owned financial services company less than a decade after starting out with only 30 members of staff here.
It is a formula that inward investment body Marketing Birmingham is planning to replicate – encouraging London-based professional services firms to base back-office functions in the city to take advantage of lower costs.
Richard McCarthy, managing director and site head for Deutsche Bank in Birmingham, said the Brindleyplace office would become a new centre of excellence for the firm.
He said: “Five Brindleyplace is an excellent building in an outstanding location on the estate and will be an aspirational place in which to work.
“Brindleyplace has a real sense of community and its connection to the main transport hubs enables us to both attract and retain the very best talent.”
Mr McCarthy, who is also the bank’s global head of commodity and loan operations, said he expected to see the new office up-and-running by next summer.
Deutsche Bank has been guarded about growing its Birmingham team in recent years, despite the hundreds of extra jobs proving a major boost to the city.
The move is a major boost to the city’s financial services aspirations.
While it will never compete with London, Birmingham is rivalled by the likes of Edinburgh and Leeds as the UK’s second finance hub and the Deutsche Bank move is a major boost to plans.
The Post understands Marketing Birmingham has held talks with other professional services firms in London about shifting jobs to the city and reducing costs.
Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: “Deutsche Bank’s decision to base their new centre of excellence in Birmingham endorses our strategy to promote the city’s ability to meet the needs of an increasingly international financial services sector.
“Birmingham’s financial services sector is the second largest in the UK outside London and is expected to grow on average by 3.5 per cent every year for the next five years.
“Deutsche Bank has chosen to expand in Birmingham over a number of potential locations, but our talent and quality of life and potential to fuel their growth globally, has helped us secure one of the largest property deals in the UK this year.”
In a statement, Jeremy Marchant of Moorfield and Ross Blair, managing director, of Hines UK, the owners of the building, said it showed Brindleyplace was offering the right kind of environment.
He said: “This substantial corporate investment by Deutsche Bank in Birmingham is a major boost for the city and its business community.
“It is a great reflection of the city’s international commercial status and impressive talent pool.”
