BNP Paribas, the French banking giant, yesterday said it planned to recruit an extra 370 staff at its offices in Dundee and Glasgow over the next three to five years.

The company, which already employs 125 workers in Scotland providing fund administration and accounting services to UK clients, will take over a floor in the Aurora building, the former home of Scottish Enterprise, in Glasgow's Inter- national Financial Services District to accommodate the extra staff.

The company said around 270 of the new jobs would be based in Glasgow, and the remaining 100 would be based in Dundee. All the jobs are being created in part thanks to a £3.7m government Regional Selective Assistance grant.

News of BNP Paribas' expansion in Scotland was welcomed by Jim Watson, senior manager at Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. He said: "It's another huge boost for Glasgow's International Financial Services District, which establishes beyond doubt the city's credentials as a leading financial services location.

"BNP Paribas' planned move to fantastic new offices in the heart of the IFSD is further evidence of Glasgow's growing reputation as a place where companies can build their operations successfully, drawing on a huge pool of skilled labour and some of the highest quality office accommodation available anywhere in the UK."

Paris-based BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the eurozone by total assets and the leading European provider of securities services to the world's financial institutions, said the Scottish expansion would include outsourced investment operations to fund managers and other institutional investors.

Tony Solway, head of BNP Paribas Securities Services UK, said: "We have long-established relationships with asset managers in Scotland and anticipate strong growth in our business in the coming years.

"This grant will enable us to support this growth in our operations centres in Glasgow and Dundee, accessing the local markets which are rich in talent."

In 2005, BNP Paribas lost out to Aberdeen Asset Management for the £45bn Deutsche Asset Management business - but as part of the integration, Aberdeen migrated on to an administration system run by the French bank.

BNP Paribas was created in 2000 through the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas.

It is one of the world's top 15 banks, according to US-based Forbes magazine, employs 140,000 people and has a presence in more than 85 countries.