FinTrU’s second round of cuts tests a model built on headcount

FinTrU, the Belfast-based firm that runs know-your-customer (KYC), compliance, risk and legal work for global financial institutions, has put 114 roles at risk. The Financial Services Union (FSU) set out the figures on 21 October. “The company has proposed 19 redundancies in Derry and a further 95 redundancies in Belfast,” said Craig Arden, the union’s industrial relations organizer.

The company confirmed the restructuring to BBC News NI the same day. It described the move as an “organisational realignment to support long-term growth” and said it follows a wider strategic review. It is FinTrU’s second redundancy process of 2026. In January the company began a process that ended with 82 job losses in product technology and corporate services, as reported by The Irish News.

Between them, the January round and the new proposal account for 196 roles, equivalent to 14% of the 1,360 people FinTrU employed at the end of 2025.

FinTrU grew by adding people, and its revenue per employee in 2024 and 2025 was close to its 2018 level. With staff costs at more than four-fifths of turnover, a finished client project or a product line that sells below plan shows up in the headcount first.

Eight times the staff in six years

Darragh McCarthy founded FinTrU in 2013 and is still its chief executive. The business grew from a £9m operation with 178 people in 2018 to £74m of turnover and 1,419 employees in 2024, according to The Irish News. FinTrU now runs delivery centers in Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Letterkenny and Porto, with sales offices in London and New York, according to its website.

Between those two years the revenue each employee brought in barely changed. It was about £50,600 in 2018 and about £52,100 in 2024. In 2025, turnover fell 4% to £71m and the headcount fell to 1,360, which leaves the figure at about £52,200.

Staff costs were just over £59m in 2025, about 83% of turnover, after around £60m in 2024. Pre-tax profit, £6m in 2023, fell to £687,521 in 2025.

On those figures, the gap between turnover and staff costs was about £12m in 2025, down from about £14m in 2024. Turnover fell 4% while staff costs barely moved, and pre-tax profit fell to less than £1m.

When the client work shrinks

The 2025 accounts give the company’s reasons for the January cuts. FinTrU said technology revenues had come in lower than it expected, and that the services it provided to a key customer had been reduced after a major project was completed, according to The Irish News. The company said natural staff attrition and new customer business had offset part of the lost revenue.

The accounts also record 59 people cut by the end of 2025, with redundancy costs of around £425,000. The headcount fell by the same number over the year, from 1,419 to 1,360.

FinTrU’s website pairs its services with what it calls “proprietary AI-enabled technologies”. The January round fell in the product technology team and in corporate services. Neither the union nor the company has said which teams the new proposal affects.

The roles the union lists are in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry only. The union’s statement does not mention the Letterkenny or Porto centers. In July, FinTrU set out its case for that spread of sites in a post on its own website, arguing that banks choosing where to run operations work can no longer decide on cost alone. “The increasing complexity of financial regulation requires deep, specialist capability across the full client lifecycle,” the company wrote. In FinTrU’s model that capability is its staff, spread across delivery centers in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal, which is why its payroll grew in step with its revenue.

A dispute over the terms of exit

The FSU has written to McCarthy raising “significant concerns regarding the procedural fairness of the redundancy process”. It says staff who are selected “may receive only statutory redundancy payments”, while enhanced terms have “reportedly been applied in previous restructuring exercises”.

The union is asking FinTrU to restart the consultation so that every affected member of staff is treated in the same way, to pay enhanced redundancy terms and to deal with the union directly. BBC News NI reported that the union also wants the consultation to run for at least 90 days.

FinTrU’s statement to the BBC said it would support affected employees through the consultation. It did not address the union’s points on redundancy pay.

The union’s own statement says FinTrU has been widely recognized as “one of Northern Ireland’s economic success stories”. On the figures The Irish News reported, that success was built by hiring: FinTrU went from 178 people in 2018 to 1,419 in 2024, and its turnover grew at almost the same rate.

What the accounts show

With staff costs at 83p of every pound of turnover and pre-tax profit down to £687,521 in 2025, payroll is by far the largest cost FinTrU can act on, and the 114 roles are its second cut to it in 2026. Statutory or enhanced terms will set how much the restructuring costs FinTrU up front, and the union has put that question directly to the founder.