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A US-headquartered technology and investment firm is to establish a centre of excellence in Belfast with a plan to create 160 new jobs.

Invest Northern Ireland has offered more than £1m of support for PEAK6, which aims to have the roles in place over the next four years.

The company has already started to recruit software engineers.

The Department for the Economy has said the roles will contribute £8.5 million in additional salaries to the economy.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds welcomed the announcement.

She said: "Our strength in financial technology, cloud solutions and emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, continues to attract businesses to invest here and capitalise on our growing expertise to help them grow their businesses.

"A core part of my department's 'Rebuilding a Stronger Economy' framework is to develop highly-skilled workforces with higher paying jobs."

PEAK6 is yet to find a location to establish a base but told Â鶹ԼÅÄ News NI it wants office space in Belfast.

Company executives, who are based in Chicago, visited Northern Ireland in 2019.

Judi Hart, chief operating officer, said they decided to invest in Northern Ireland due to its "rich talent offering and thriving technology sector".

She added: "The Belfast team will innovate industry-specific technology solutions that will enable transformation across our companies and focus on the research, development and delivery of new products to help us achieve our ambitious growth plans.

"Thanks to the doors that Invest NI has opened for us, we are already engaging with local universities about graduate opportunities and we're excited for Northern Ireland talent to join the PEAK6 team."