After a day in which officials seemed to be scrambling to find out which financial services company was actually coming to Providence, Gov. Lincoln Almond and Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., last week jointly announced that Boston Financial Data Services would bring hundreds of new jobs to the city.
The announcement did not mention the specific number of jobs. The company is expected to open its Providence operation — an expansion of its current business — in about a year.
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Officials at Boston Financial Data Services were also unsure how many jobs would be coming to Rhode Island and exactly what jobs would be involved.
“We’re not sure yet,” said Allison Quirk, a Boston Financial Data senior vice president. “Plans do call for growth. This facility will be ready we hope in the fall of ’99. There’s nothing moving. No transfer of employees from here to there. We know that the facility can handle somewhere in the neighborhood of 600, depending upon what function goes down there.”
She said the company was looking for another site, and chose Rhode Island because it has a “good labor pool.” Quirk said. The North Quincy-based company now employs 3,800, she said.
Boston Financial Data Services is a 25-year-old company that provides the mutual funds industry with various services, from record keeping to cash management services.
Growing company
John Hooley, president and chief executive officer, on the company’s web site, describes Boston Financial Data Services as a company that has grown from a “narrowly-focused, but strategically important transfer agent business into what is arguably the most successful joint venture in the financial services marketplace today. We have grown from 82 associates servicing 385,000 shareholders to over 3,800 associates servicing over 25 million shareholders, including all of our lines of business and our fast-growing global enterprise.”
Boston Financial Data Services, the announcement said, was influenced in its decision by the cooperation of the state’s Economic Development Corporation, which is assisting in the relocation by expediting permit applications and sales tax exemptions on equipment. The city, meanwhile, is working with the company on a tax stabilization plan.
The announcement came as a result of a flurry of activity, prompted by questions from the Providence Business News on Sunday, Oct. 18 to Gov. Almond, who then confirmed that First Data Corporation was bringing 750 jobs to the Foundry. However, that was not quite accurate and on Tuesday the governor’s press office confirmed that it was Dreyfus Co. that would be bringing the jobs, 500 of them new and 250 that would move from the current American Express Building to the Foundry. In the end that too proved inaccurate.
Confusion over the occupant may have evolved because all three companies are in the mutual funds processing business. The First Data Corp. location on American Express Plaza, near the Providence train station, became Dreyfus Transfer Inc. on March 1. The transition from First Data to Dreyfus was not a financial transaction, but Dreyfus, according to officials of the companies, simply assumed responsibility for operations there. Dreyfus retained all 300 employees at the site.
At the time of the transfer Dreyfus would not commit whether it would expand the number of jobs in Rhode Island. As of last week Dreyfus remained non-committal about its future here.
No comment on Dreyfus
Quirk, when asked if there were any Dreyfus jobs involved in Boston Financial’s Foundry project refused comment, as she did when asked if there were any business connections between the two companies. A Dreyfus spokesperson issued a statement saying the company was “not ready to make an announcement and not at liberty to disclose details,” and refused further comment.
T
he real importance is that the state and city have been able to attract another substantial financial services employer. Rhode Island has made great effort in recent years to pass legislation that is favorable to the financial services industry, targeting that sector as among those that the state believes represents Rhode Island’s economic future. In recent years, the state has attracted a substantial Fidelity Investments facility in Smithfield, a Fleet Financial facility in Lincoln, and Suretrade, a Fleet on-line brokerage subsidiary, also in Lincoln.
Boston Financial Data Services was established in 1973 as a corporate joint venture of State Street Corporation and DST Systems, Inc. State Street is custodian to hundreds of mutual funds, the largest custodial bank in the United States, according to Boston Financial Data Services web site. DST Systems, the web site says, is a leader in the design, development and operation of proprietary software systems, providing shareholder accounting and recordkeeping services. The combination brought to Boston Financial Data Services the software systems experience of DST and the marketing and custodial capabilities and services of State Street, the web site says.
Boston Financial Data Services has offices at 66 Brooks Drive in Braintree, 1200 Hancock Street in Quincy Center, 260 and 500 Victory Road Marina Bay-Quincy, and 2 Heritage Drive in North Quincy.
