BEAR Stearns, the US investment banking and securities trading firm, has received a banking licence from the Central Bank of Ireland and will begin operating in Dublin within the next few weeks. The bank said yesterday it would employ 15 people and trade from offices on Harcourt Street until it could obtain office space in the IFSC.

"Initially we will be targeting fixed income derivative activities," said Mr Warren Spector, the bank's chairman. "We are looking forward to the bank becoming a platform for the further development of our global banking activities."

There were a number of factors that made Dublin the best choice for its nonUS banking centre, the company said.

"There's the fact that we speak the same language, that Ireland is in the European Union so we can have access to other European markets, there's a good pool of people to draw upon, a convenient timezone, and tremendous support from the Irish Government," Mr Spector said.

The tax incentives were helpful in making the case for Ireland, he said, but were not an overriding factor. The regulatory authorities in Dublin had been particularly cooperative, he added, and the procedures the company had to follow to get a banking licence had been smoother than expected.

Established 74 years ago in New York, Bear Stearns now has over $10.6 billion (£7 billion) in capital and over 8,000 employees. The company's business includes corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, institutional equities and fixed income sales and trading, private client services, derivatives and foreign exchange.