Bank centre jobs pledge

The centre will deal with calls from Europe

An £80m telephone banking centre is to open in Scotland with the creation of about 500 jobs.

National Australia Group, which owns the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, hopes to have the facility up and running in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, by summer next year.

It will handle calls from customers from the Northern and National Irish, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.

The centre is being funded through a joint partnership involving global telecoms firm Concert and communication centre specialists Merchants Ltd.

The Scottish sector has grown rapidly

Stuart Grimshaw, chief executive of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, said: "I'm delighted we will be working closely with both Concert and Merchants and will be able to build on their considerable experience.

"The new centre will incorporate state of the art technology and business processes which will mean an improved service and experience for our customers."

Cathy Martine, president of global accounts for Concert, added that she was "delighted" her company could offer support for such an important development.

"This is a deal supporting the creation of new jobs in Scotland and involving the deployment of the latest contact centre technology," she said.

Last month, National Australia Group announced plans to merge the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks into a single institution which would be based in Glasgow, subject to parliamentary approval.

'Working hard'

East Ayrshire Council said the new jobs were a testimony to the efforts made to attract investment to the region.

Council leader Drew McIntyre said: "It is good news for the National Australia Group, but it will also help us to promote East Ayrshire to companies who are thinking about locating here.

"The council has worked hard to build on last year's success of attracting Travel Choice to Rowallan, and I'm extremely hopeful that today's announcement is just the latest step in our bid to attract high quality jobs to East Ayrshire."

Scotland has become a European leader in terms of call centres.

The sector employs more than 28,000 people in more than 170 centres.

Over the last two years, BT Scotland, mobile phone company One2One, Thomson Holidays and Cogent Communications have created thousands of jobs throughout the country.