16 March 2023: Bank of Ireland’s NYC Hub, created to support ever-closer economic ties between the island of Ireland and the United States, has welcomed more than 1,500 visitors over the past 12 months.
Relaunched in 2022 as the world emerged from the pandemic, NYC Hub, located in the Bank’s offices at 2 Grand Central Tower in Manhattan, is a flexible workspace containing seven offices, three meeting rooms, a conference room and 20 hot desks which can be booked on a group or individual basis. It can also be used as an event space accommodating up to 120.
NYC Hub can be used by Bank of Ireland business and corporate banking customers based in Northern Ireland that are either looking to expand into the United States, are customers with established US operations, or US-based customers who have a presence across Ireland. The space can be used for working, meetings with potential customers and investors, and larger presentations and networking events.
Gavin Kelly, CEO of Bank of Ireland’s Corporate and Markets division, said:
“The Bank of Ireland NYC Hub was created to give our business and corporate banking clients from right across the island of Ireland a place to work or meet their customers, suppliers and investors – right in the heart of Manhattan. One of the core aims of NYC Hub is to offer something very practical and useful to our customers who may be looking to expand into the US. That can be a busy and high-pressure time, and having NYC Hub available to them means one less thing to worry about.”
“At Bank of Ireland we want to foster and maintain close economic ties with the United States to benefit those on both sides of the Atlantic. Our teams in New York, Chicago, LA and Stamford work with customers looking to expand to the US. We also strongly support inward investment of US companies across the island of Ireland.”
Amongst the businesses and organisations from Northern Ireland who have benefitted from using the Bank of Ireland NYC Hub is North West based AwakenHub, which is an all island of Ireland community established to remove barriers for women to invest, scale and succeed. On February 1st this year they were able to use the Hub as part of their first mission to America where they connected 6 female-founded companies with over 130 Irish and American investors. As a result of the event, conversations between the companies and investors have continued and the AwakenHub team have further US investment events in plan.
Sinead Crowley of AwakenHub said: “We were delighted to be able to use the hub to facilitate events and make valuable introductions to our community and their potential investors. Practical supports like this are game changing for start-ups and growing businesses and I would encourage others to make use of the facility and the opportunities it can help to open up.”
Bank of Ireland’s Corporate and Markets Division has a team of more than 1,100 dedicated to serving a wide range of SMEs and larger national and international corporations. The Division also includes wholesale financial markets services, specialised acquisition finance, and property lending activities.
