Scotland next month, and hire 80 to 100 staff to be based there within the first year.

The bank is currently negotiating as to where to site the new unit, but expects it to be fully operational by September 1999.

Application programming, technical services and telecommunications professionals will operate from the new unit, complementing the existing work by information technology units in Bermuda and Hong Kong, providing a balanced 24 hour global IT delivery structure.

Executive vice president, systems and operations, Peter Le Noury said, "We have chosen the Scotland area as our European IT hub, as it has a strong IT infrastructure.'' Bank to open Scotland office He added it had an "excellent'' track record of providing an associated pool of highly qualified IT professionals.

"We anticipate that our Scotland IT unit will create career opportunities for existing IT staff, and expect several transfer requests from our Bermuda, Hong Kong and London offices.''