The UK's Newcastle Building Society (NBS) is creating 500 jobs as it opens a new facility that will house its 'strategic solutions' unit, which provides technology, processing and administrative support services to third party clients.
The majority of the new roles will be located at the technology unit, which provides services to financial sector firms including Bradford and Bingley, Bank of Ireland and Iceland's Landsbanki.
The strategic solutions unit is housed at NBS's newly-opened state-of-the-art facility which is located in the UK's biggest business park, called Cobalt, in North Tyneside.
NBS says the new facilities will enable the development of services for a wider market, as well as significant further investment in IT.
The building society has received a £1.3 million grant from regional development agency One NorthEast for the project.
NBS says the recruitment is expected to be completed by 2012, with 50 roles have already filled and another 50 positions currently being advertised.
Last year the building society reportedly shut down its back office processing unit in Mumbai, India after finding that its staff in the UK were more efficient, accurate and cheaper.