Barclays to Create Up to 600 Glasgow Jobs With Help of $10.2 Million Grant

Barclays Plc, Britain’s third largest bank, plans to create up to 600 jobs in Glasgow, with a new facility for its investment banking and wealth management division.

The bank will receive a grant of as much as 6.6 million pounds ($10.2 million) in Regional Selective Assistance funding from Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish government said today in an e-mailed statement today. The grant is conditional on Barclays “potentially” taking its total workforce in Scotland to more than 2,000 over coming years, the government said.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said he was “delighted” that Barclays had chosen to expand in the country given “tough competition from emerging markets.” The financial-services industry employs about 95,000 people in Scotland and accounts for about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to government data.

The financial industry in Scotland has seen sizeable job losses in the past two weeks with Glasgow-based insurer Direct Line cutting 400 positions and Standard Life Plc, Scotland’s biggest insurer, announcing the loss of 500 jobs, mainly in Edinburgh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Farrand at tfarrand@bloomberg.net