Manxman and managing director James Geldart is full of excitement for the banking sector in the island.

Mr Geldart has been in the hot seat at Santander International in Prospect Hill, Douglas, for only a few months.

Now he is delighted that the bank in the island is going to see the creation of 13 new roles.

The news is likely to be welcomed by the island’s finance sector.

Mr Geldart told business news the island has a fine talent pool and growth is definitely on the cards for the bank.

He said: ’The increase in our headcount in the Isle of Man is a positive story. The Isle of Man has a lot to offer.

’It’s a 20% increase in our headcount here - from 62 to 75.

’We have great confidence in the workforce of the island.

’There is a lot of operational talent in the Isle of Man and we are quite happy to invest in this market.’

Mr Geldart was born and bred in the island and attended Castle Rushen High School.

He left the island for a number of years before returning to his beloved island to take the hot seat at Santander International in Prospect Hill, Douglas in August.

He said: ’I really wanted to help develop this bank.

’We have traditionally done savings and mortgage products and I really wanted to develop this bank and in order to do so orientate ourselves well in the market and to do that we needed a really strong group of people and I want to tap into the Manx workforce.’

Mr Geldart said: ’We want to recruit these people as soon as possible so we will go through our normal recruitment process.

’As far as we are concerned this process has started and we need to recruit these individuals as soon as we can.’

Asked what sort of roles the bank was looking at Mr Geldart said there are a number of roles within operations and across different experience levels in a contact centre environment, including customer service.

In February, Lloyds Bank International announced plans to cut 120 jobs in the island - more than a quarter of its workforce here.

Asked if he thought Santander International was ’bucking the trend’ in the light of recent events he said: ’I think we are. It is not for me to comment on other institutions, however we see the Isle of Man as a real growth opportunity.

’We’ve done a lot here in terms of savings and mortgage business but not a lot in the wider sweep of banking products and this is us orientating ourselves for future growth.’

Mr Geldart said Santander International had the chance to do things a little differently to some other banks.

The bank’s Douglas branch has local and international ’ex-pat’ customers.

The expansion in operations has come about after Santander International carried out a strategic review of its Isle of Man and Jersey business.

It proposes to move the remainder of its operation roles that are currently in Jersey to the Isle of Man to improve productivity and efficiency, explained a spokesman.

Mr Geldart, said: ’The proposal to move all of our operational roles to the Isle of Man demonstrates our investment in the island and our confidence in the local market to build a talented workforce.’