Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) is expected to create 100 new jobs over the next three years with its announced expansion into Europe and the opening of its European headquarters in Dublin.
The company currently has over 275 employees in offices across the United States, and the agency has published over 8,000 ratings totalling $740bn (€616bn). Established in 2010, KBRA is a full service credit rating agency.
According to Mauricio Noé, Head of Europe at KBRA who was hired a year ago to build its presence in the European markets, the company was formed out of a belief that ratings agencies could do a better job. “We were started after the crisis and really our founder, Jules Kroll – who is known in the investigative world in the US and globally – decided that the big agencies had got off fairly lightly during the crisis,”
KBRA is expanding into Europe to provide investors and market participants an additional view on ratings, according to a company statement.
Mr Noé said that attracting talent from abroad has so far not been problematic, despite the issues around the cost of housing and relatively high personal taxation. He joked that weather is an often raised issue but that in reality it is family links that often make people decide one way or another. “We’re fairly aggressively targeting the Irish diaspora in London and New York – particularly people with Irish girlfriends or wives – to see whether they would come back home, come to Dublin and actually it’s proven to be very successful,” he said.
Welcoming the jobs announcement, An Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald TD said she was “delighted” that KBRA had chosen Dublin for its international headquarters.
