Barclays PLC aims to double its employee count in Ireland to 300 by the end of 2019 and find more Irish clients, the Irish Independent reported.

The British lender selected Dublin as the new hub for its Irish operations after the U.K. departs the European Union.

The Independent quoted Barclays Bank Ireland CEO Kevin Wall saying the bank would grow services to large corporate entities and private banking customers.

British banks and U.K.-based subsidiaries of non-EU foreign banks are set to lose their "passporting" rights once Britain leaves the EU, which is scheduled for March 2019. Passporting allows banks within the EU to sell services freely across the bloc.

Dublin has been viewed as a popular destination for financial services firms following Brexit, partly because it is an English-speaking country within the EU and corporate tax rates are low.

Bank of America Corp. in November also set up a hub in Dublin in preparation for a possible hard Brexit.