UK/SPAIN- Index provider FTSE Group today has announced it is opening an office in Madrid to serve markets and investors in Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Regional manager for Southern Europe Pito Nadal will head the office which is FTSE’s fourth in Europe- it already has operations in Paris, Frankfurt and London.

As head of the Spanish operation, Nadal will act as a client relationship manager looking after existing and potential clients.

FTSE Group calculates over 20,000 indices daily and among those covering the Southern European region are Latibex, FTSE Eurotop, FTSE Global Sectors and the FTSE All-World.

Mark Makepeace, chief executive of the FTSE Group said: “this is an important time for FTSE Group, as it continues to expand and establish a local presence in main markets around the world.”

Since its inception as a private company seven years ago, FTSE Group’s workforce has grown from a start-up of 9 to 141 people in seven offices in Europe, US and Asia.

In July, FTSE Americas, a division of FTSE Group, appointed Carmen Campollo as vice president of pension and consultant relations to its New York office.

Campollo’s job is to sell FTSE indices as a benchmark to North American public and corporate pension.