Agio: New York company to create 100 jobs in Belfast

American IT and cybersecurity firm Agio is to create 100 jobs in Northern Ireland over the next five years.

The company, which is based in New York, works with the financial services industry, including asset managers and hedge funds.

Invest Northern Ireland has offered a £650,000 grant to support the roles, which will be based in a new technology centre in Belfast.

Recruitment has started and 19 of the jobs are already in place.

Agio's chief revenue officer Garvin McKee, who is from Northern Ireland, said the company was confident a Northern Ireland base would continue to "add excellent talent to our service organisation".

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said the investment would contribute £4.5m in annual salaries to the Northern Ireland economy when all of the roles are in place.

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The jobs announcement comes as an Ulster Bank survey shows economic recovery in Northern Ireland lost momentum in August.

Every month the bank asks firms across the private sector about issues such as staffing levels, new orders and exports - the survey results are considered to be a reliable indicator of economic activity.

Ulster Bank chief economist Richard Ramsey said last month marked Northern Ireland firms' slowest rates of growth in output, orders and employment in five months.

Ulster Bank chief economist Richard Ramsey says services firms are raising their prices

The survey suggests the manufacturing and services sectors saw some loss of momentum in August but output, orders and staffing levels were still growing.

But the retail and construction sectors were in contraction territory, with falling sales and orders.

"The survey revealed again an all-too-familiar story, with inflationary pressures and lengthening supplier delivery times," said Mr Ramsey.

"Within the UK, Northern Ireland continues to report the steepest rises in input costs, with local firms raising the prices of their goods and services at faster rates than any other region.

"Price pressures linked to raw materials, fuel, freight, wages and Brexit continued to be cited by survey respondents.

"Inflationary price pressures in August eased only marginally relative to their recent record highs, although services firms raised their prices at the fastest pace in 13 years."

Meanwhile a Japanese cybersecurity firm, Nihon Cyber Defence, is opening an office in Belfast with an initial 10 employees.

Dougie Grant, a former cybercrime detective at the PSNI, is Nihon's managing director for Europe.

Additionally Ciaran Martin, the former head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, will be joining the firm's board in Tokyo.