Life assurance company Friends Provident is to add 100 employees to its Dublin headquarters operation as it continues its drive to become a full financial services company. Employment will rise from the 460 to 560 people, as soon as it is possible to recruit new staff, according to Mr Adrian Hegarty, managing director of Friends Provident's parent company, Eureko Ireland. The new jobs range from customer services and insurance positions to information technology specialists, business analysts and sales staff.

The company, which launched a personal finance and leasing operation two months ago, has flagged its interest in the personal banking market. It is interested in getting into the mortgage market as well as offering other traditional banking-type products, initially to its existing customer base. Friends had completed a number of projects aimed at broadening its range of financial products and was now ready to move to the implementation stage, Mr Hegarty said.

The company is improving its customer services technology to give personal and broker customers a single point of reference and a quick response to enquiries. It currently depends on the Friends Provident system in Britain for a significant part of its information technology support. But it will now disconnect from the British system and become self sufficient. The group has set a target of a market share of 10 per cent for all its businesses. It wants to have 5 per cent of the £1.6 billion personal finance and leasing markets within five years, building up to 10 per cent over time.

After strong first-half growth, the company had about 8 per cent of the life assurance market at the end of June on an average premium equivalent basis, according to Mr Hegarty. But its share of the general insurance market is just about 2.5 per cent. The group is interested in acquisitions to boost its market share in all three markets. "Critical mass is essential," Mr Hegarty said. While it is not actively looking at New Ireland at the moment, he has not ruled it out "if the price is right".

Friends Provident is part of the Eureko Ireland Financial Services Group, which was set up in 1993 and comprises Friends Provident and the general insurance operation Celtic International. It is part of the Eureko Alliance, the seventh-largest insurer in Europe with assets of £64 billion and 33,000 employees in 14 countries.