Enterprise minister Micheál Martin is due in Dundalk tomorrow where he will announce a fresh investment by the company, which also has a fund administration operation at the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin.

Daiwa was one of the first companies to establish a hedge fund administration centre at the IFSC. The company first established operations in Ireland in 1900. Daiwa opened a second fund administration centre at the Finnabair industrial estate in Dundalk last year and, following negotiations with the IDA over recent months, is now set to expand that operation.

It is understood many of the new jobs will be taken by third-level graduates.

The jobs created will be in areas such as accounting and fund administration as well as associated IT and support functions.

Daiwa is said to have been attracted to Dundalk because of the Institute of Technology there. Its proximity to the M1 motorway also opens up the possibility of attracting skilled employees to commute from either Dublin or Belfast.

Its parent company, Tokyo-based Daiwa Securities Group, is valued at Euro12.75bn on the Tokyo stock exchange and is the second-largest investment bank in Japan.

The company attracted some unwanted attention when it ran into regulatory trouble towards the end of last year. It emerged in December that an employee at one of Daiwa's subsidiaries in the Japanese city of Osaka had executed a trade despite being aware that the client placing the order might have had insider information.

Daiwa was censured by both the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Japan's Financial Services Agency, forced to shut down the subsidiary for two days and ordered to improve its compliance procedures.