The present invention relates to a method for manufacture of wire bondable and solderable surfaces on noble metal electrodes. The noble metal electrodes are activated by depositing a seed layer of palladium or a palladium alloy layer by electroless plating at 60 to 90° C. Next, an intermediate layer is deposited onto the seed layer followed by deposition of the wire bondable and/or solderable surface finish layer(s) onto the intermediate layer. This method is particularly suitable in the production of optoelectronic devices such as light emitting diodes (LEDs).