Bank of America expects more Cheshire job creation

BANK of America Merrill Lynch expects to grow its workforce in Cheshire and is now no longer actively pursuing the sale of its MBNA credit card division, which employs some 3,000 people in the county.

The group’s European president, Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, said the site at Chester Business Park was “an increasingly important part of the business” as he opened a new Global Command Centre last week.

He told guests and staff that the talent pool in the North West, the location, availability of space and time-zone, had driven the latest investment in Cheshire.

“There are nearly 3,500 people on this campus, including MBNA, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in Chester this week. The new Global Command Centre is our first in Europe, and these are 60 highly skilled jobs, which we have been able to fill quickly thanks to the excellent available pool of talent.

“We will only be growing here – Chester will become an increasingly important hub for us as we run our business. We expect to build all our functions here, it’s a fantastic campus.”

Bank of America officials said more than 50 positions for the command centre – the bank’s first in Europe – had been filled in 90 days.

The building housing the facility, which provides support for the global bank’s  technology infrastructure, currently houses 148 people and has capacity for 250.

Mr Wilmot-Sitwell, pictured, declared: “This building will be full”, but would not be drawn on the possible timescale.

Separately Ian O’Doherty, chief executive of MBNA – which runs credit cards in partnership with football clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool FC, airlines including Etihad and Emirates asd charities like The National Trust – said that after a “bumpy ride” over the last two years, the picture is more positive.

Bank of America announced in 2011 that it was looking to exit its UK and Irish credit card business, and despite running a sales process, this has now concluded.

Mr O’Doherty told TheBusinessDesk.com said: “I am delighted to be celebrating the 20th anniversary. Given that we have been through a rocky patch recently, the progress of MBNA over the last 20 years should not be under-estimated – we have around 12% of the  UK credit card market and three and a half million customers.”

Asked about the possible sale, he added: “No business can ever say they are not for sale, but at the moment there are is no active process and we are continuing to invest – in technology, customer acquisition and improving our service, and we’re looking to the future with optimism.”

“The sale process happened and we have moved on – during the process the most important thing was to run the business well in terms of compliance and profitability, so whoever acquired it saw it was a viable investment, and I think we achieved this.”

Edward Pysden, the former corporate lawyer who chairs Marketing Cheshire, was one of the guests at the launch of the Bank of America command centre.

He said the investment was a “huge vote of confidence in Cheshire as an excellent business location.”

“To see a company of this stature committing to grow its business here is excellent news, it is fantastic that Bank of America recognises that Cheshire has the right skills its needs to continue to support its global infrastructure.”