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First Derivatives logo  First Derivatives is a leading provider of products and consulting services to the capital markets industry. Focused on financial institutions that work cross-asset, often with multi-system and/or high volume trading activities, the Company scopes, designs, develops, implements and supports a broad range of mission critical data and trading systems across front, middle and back-office operations. The Company has continued to expand its service offering and now has operational bases in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia to service its global client base. It is recognized as one of the fastest growing capital markets service providers in the world. First Derivatives now employs over 680 employees worldwide. 

First Derivatives’ distinct competitive advantage derives from its unique combination of knowledge of financial markets and expertise in financial services technologies. The Company believes that its consultants need to fully understand the client’s business requirements in order to produce the right technical solution. This saves our clients development time, and ultimately money. Key to our market position is continuing our strong track record of profit growth and our international reputation for the quality of our services in our target sectors.

We know that ensuring our people are well motivated, well rewarded and have the opportunity to develop their true potential is critical to meeting our varied client needs and our continued commercial success. This success can also be attributed to our interest in Northern Irish students.

The most recent way we have invested in possible future employees is through our sponsorship of Northern Ireland’s first ever Financial Trading room, in Queen’s University Belfast. We hope it will provide a dynamic learning environment for students, hoping to embark in a career in financial services and technologies. Now that the students can practice dealing in real time equities, bonds, foreign exchange and derivative instruments, they should be better prepared when the time comes to work in the capital markets. We feel this experience will add to the already desirable skill sets that many students from Northern Ireland possess, and help bridge the gap between academia and the workplace. Not only will this benefit the company, considering the high number of graduates that we hire from Queens, but this knowledge and experience will also be a massive boost to the Northern Irish economy.

Northern Ireland has a successful established cluster in the financial services sector, with continued investments and expansions by international firms such as Citigroup, CME Group, Fidessa, NYSE Euronext, and indigenous companies including First Derivatives.

Invest Northern Ireland, the region’s economic development agency is continuing to attract further high value inward investment projects from banking and capital markets which require specialist skill sets. It knows that the Derivatives Trading Room at QUB can play an important part in ensuring that high level finance skills continue to flourish in the region. 

As only the second facility of its type in Ireland, the trading floor will help to enhance Northern Ireland’s capability in computational finance, capital markets technology, asset servicing and risk management. It will help to develop specialist skills and research in key areas, and it is an excellent demonstration of the collaborative approach of academia, industry and government which helps to differentiate Northern Ireland in a globally competitive marketplace.