New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street, New York.

The New York Stock Exchange is to create up to 400 new jobs in Northern Ireland with the opening of a "satellite office" in Belfast.

The Wall Street powerhouse will set up its office in the Belfast city centre, it was announced today.

In the presence of Northern Ireland's first minister, Peter Robinson, and deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, at Stormont Castle this morning, the NYSE's chief executive, Duncan Niederauer, announced the plans for investing in Belfast.

Invest Northern Ireland will provide up to £9.6million to support the move of NYSE Technologies business operations into a new state-of-the-art development facility in 2010 and the creation of up to 400 new technology, operational and corporate jobs, which include 75 positions from a prior agreement, in the coming years.

NYSE Euronext said it recognises its operations in Belfast as a centre of excellence for the delivery of innovative technology solutions, specifically low latency messaging capabilities, data distribution and securities operations to serve its expanding global client base.

First Minister Peter Robinson said: “Today’s announcement that NYSE Euronext intends to expand its operations and staff in Belfast is yet another positive step forward by Invest NI in the growth of our local financial services sector, particularly at a time when global competition for such investment has never been higher. NYSE Technologies is an enterprise which works at the very core of the trading world, developing advanced software solutions for global trading markets.”

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: “No one should doubt the scale and significance of this expansion which is a major endorsement of our local talent, knowledge and infrastructure. It will also send a clear message to other potential investors when such a high profile institution decides to invest here. Over the past two years I, along with the First Minister and his predecessor have had an ongoing engagement with Duncan and his colleagues which we are delighted has led to this announcement.”

Duncan Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer, NYSE Euronext, said: "We welcome the opportunity to partner with Invest NI and to expand our presence in Belfast. Northern Ireland will become increasingly important to our global growth strategy and complement our technology centres in Paris and London. Together, these centres of excellence will enable us to effectively address the growing technology and trading needs of our customers and our company."

Eghteen months ago, the NYSE bought Belfast software company Wombat for $200m (£123m). The acquisition was geared towards enabling the stock exchange to use Wombat's technology to speed up financial transactions across the world.

US financial services company Citigroup employs 800 staff in the city's Titanic Quarter.