More than 400 jobs were unveiled today in a major new investment in Northern Ireland by the New York Stock Exchange.

The world-famous Wall Street financial giant announced plans to establish a hi-tech service centre eventually providing up to 400 job opportunities — including 75 already gained in a prior agreement.

Invest Northern Ireland is providing up to £9.6m to support the move of NYSE Technologies business operations into a new state-of-the-art development facility next year and the jobs are to include new technology, operational and corporate posts.

Exchange Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer said two of the main factors behind its decision were the skills base of the Northern Ireland workforce and the personal relationship struck up with political leaders at Stormont.

“Northern Ireland will become increasingly important to our global growth strategy and complement our technology centres in Paris and London. Together, these centres of excellence will enable us to effectively address the growing technology and trading needs of our customers and our company,” he told the launch event at Stormont.

Recruitment for the new satellite centre, which will be based in Belfast city centre, probably at the Adelaide Centre, will take place over the next two years.

First Minister Peter Robinson said it was another positive step for the province’s financial services sector at a time when global competition chasing such investment has never been higher.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the venture involving such a high profile institution would send a clear message to other potential investors.

The envisaged jobs were being described as at the “high end” of the scale, paying significant salaries. The initiative dates back to a visit to the iconic Exchange building by former First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness almost two-and-a-half years ago, when they rang the famous Wall Street bell to open trading.

The first fruits of their efforts, followed up by Mr Robinson and other Ministers, came last year when the NI Stock Exchange took over the Belfast software firm Wombat, which it purchased for around £100m. Today’s venture, however, is on a significantly larger scale. It comes just a week after the visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who stressed that American corporations invested in Northern Ireland for hard-nosed commercial reasons.

”These efforts to promote greater partnership are win/win. We often talk about investment in Northern Ireland, but we have also got thousands of jobs created back in the States because of Northern Ireland investment,” Mrs Clinton said.

The famous Exchange can traces its origins back more than 200 years to 1792, when two dozen of the city’s leading stockbrokers and merchants signed an agreement. Early figures became known as “curbstone brokers” because they worked outside, in all weathers, and focussed on the stocks of small, newly created enterprises, such as turnpikes, canals and railroads.