US firm to beef up back office workforce in PH

MANILA, Philippines–Northern Trust Corp., an asset management company based in Chicago, plans to expand its operations in the Philippines and triple its workforce here over the next three to five years here, citing the country’s growing economy.

Northern Trust Philippines country head Paula Kenee on Tuesday said in a press conference that the head count at the company’s back office facility in Bonifacio Global City would grow to 500 in the medium term from 160 at present.

The Philippine facility serves clients from the accounting and financial sectors across the globe.

Operations in its temporary office at Science Hub in McKinley Hill will also be relocated in 2016 to a bigger site at the Uptown Bonifacio development, where they would occupy two floors, Kenee added.

According to Northern Trust chair and chief executive Frederick H. Waddell, the company is “delighted to be in the Philippines” just as the country’s economy is thriving.

The Philippines, Kenee noted, produces up to 30,000 accountancy graduates per year, providing a wide pool of talent from which Northern Trust could tap.

“University graduates here are aligned to the needs of business,” she explained.

Northern Trust hires both fresh graduates as well as experienced and licensed certified public accountants for various positions, and paying compensation at “market rates,” Waddell said.

An additional come-on for potential employees, who shun the night shift, is that work hours at Northern Trust’s Philippine site are between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., Kenee said.

The establishment of the Philippine office forms part of Northern Trust’s earlier announcement of a $2.2-billion three-year global investment to expand operations all over the world, Waddell said.

He did not say how much would be poured into the Philippines alone.

Waddell said that the Asia-Pacific as a whole, while still contributing the smallest to the bottom line, is an emerging major market for Northern Trust.

Company data showed that its assets under custody in the region are growing by 25 percent annually from 2008 to 2013, while assets under management are rising by over 15 percent yearly during the same five-year period.