Natixis, the second-largest banking group in France, settles in Porto and creates 600 jobs

Natixis, the second-largest banking group in France, inaugurated its Technological and Information Skills Centre in Porto.
The company started operating one year ago, and has hired over 300 people, "a high proportion of Portuguese workers, with an average age of 32 years". The goal is to reach "600 employees by the end of 2019", officials stated. 

The official opening was attended by the corporate's senior executives, as well as by the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira and the Prime Minister, António Costa.

António Costa emphasised the impetus of international companies who have settled in the country and that have already provided some 50 thousand jobs. The prime Minister gave the example of two large multinationals that have settled in the city of Porto, namely Altran and Euronext.

Laurent Mignon, Natixis CEO, outlined the several reasons why Portugal, and most specially Porto, was the chosen destination to settle the Natixis IT Centre of excellence. "We have found gifted, talented and well-educated people here and that's very important", and also "we feel here an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship which really fit with our DNA".

"If we look to what we call the Purple Touch of Natixis, entrepreneurship and innovation are the cornerstones elements of our DNA", and Laurent Mignon added that "the cultural fit is obvious and also what is very important for a company like us is that there is here a huge international mindset within the teams".

"Portugal was a great opportunity and Porto was a great opportunity in order to do so" concluded Laurent Mignon.

Nathalie Risacher, General Director of Natixis in Portugal, affirmed that the attractiveness of Portugal "was clear to us", spotlighting that Porto, "this magical city with great quality of life but also good infrastructure and very close to Paris" was a "natural choice for us".

"We have found here in Portugal tremendous skilled and dedicated professionals, graduated by Universities and Institutes highly qualified in Science and technology, able to speak a lot of languages".

"We have found true citizens of the world. Three hundred we are today and hopefully by the end of 2019 we can be 600".

The Natixis General Director for Portugal concluded by thanking all the support Mayor Rui Moreira and his team have provided to Natixis since the beginning of this endeavour by saying that "we know we can always count on you".

Natixis is the corporate, investment and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, France's second-largest banking player and boasts more than 17,000 experts in 38 countries.