Between them North Lanarkshire Council, Lanarkshire Enterprise and the Scottish Executive stumped up in excess of £6million to bring the credit card operation - and up to 1000 new jobs - to Cumbernauld.
Who then would have thought that what was trumpeted as a major boost to the local economy would evaporate after just 96 months?
Last week Barclays, new owner of Goldfish, whose accounts are now handled at the Morgan Stanley building, announced a three month consultation over redundancies and transfer of work from the state-of-the-art office complex at Hunt Hill.
Barclays may be wielding the axe but in fairness were not party to the original deal - rubber-stamped as it happens by Tony Blair - or the myriad promises and hopes that accompanied it.
But somewhere along the line the Goldfish workers and the community have been short-changed. We surely had a right to expect a bigger return for our investment than just eight years.