It doesn’t matter where you swipe your credit card. More often than not, that transaction will run through Atlanta.
For years, the city has been known as “Transaction Alley,” with roughly 70% of the world’s debit, credit and digital payments being processed in Atlanta. Several transaction companies are either based in Atlanta or have strong presences in the city, even if their work is rarely noticed by people when they swipe a card or press a payment button.
Those companies, and hundreds more from across the country, gathered in Atlanta this week for the Electronic Transaction Association’s (ETA) Transact conference, where they focused on new technology and innovation.
The roots of “Transaction Alley” were set when Atlanta was the Southeast’s banking hub. But even though Charlotte has taken that crown in recent decades, the digital payment processing industry still runs through Atlanta, ETA CEO Jodie Kelley said.
“I certainly don’t sense any movement out of Atlanta. In fact, quite the opposite,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
ETA is the trade association that represents the payments industry, which includes traditional banks, credit card providers and fintechs — financial technology companies using mobile or online platforms. About 3,000 people gathered at the Georgia World Congress Center from Monday to Wednesday for Transact, which Kelley said was record attendance.
She said it’s fitting for that watermark to be broken in Atlanta, but the processing industry’s coalescence in the city is mostly due to a bygone era. Atlanta was one of the country’s banking meccas, but has watched most of its large institutions move or consolidate in Charlotte.
Atlanta lost its last Fortune 500 bank when SunTrust consolidated with BB&T to form Truist Bank. It then moved its headquarters to — where else — the Queen City in 2019. Atlanta kept the commercial banking unit headquarters of Truist, however.
Kelley said that hasn’t rattled the transactions industry, since Georgia has risen as a hotbed for fintechs and digital banking innovation. The state is home to more than 160 fintechs and payment companies, including large players such as WorldPay and Global Payments.
“Atlanta is at the heart of that ecosystem,” she said.
African American-owned fintechs are also gaining traction in Atlanta, which has long been a stronghold for Black banks. Founded by rapper Killer Mike, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and businessman Ryan Glover, Greenwood has grown quickly and opened its financial services to the general public earlier in April.
Kelley said the industry is focusing its innovation on embedding payment systems in more products, from washing machines that can pay for new detergent when low to cars that can automatically pay while at the pump.
She added that companies also can’t afford to be complacent on payment security.
“Fraudsters are always innovating, too, so our industry has to innovate along with them,” she said, adding that companies are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning for potential solutions.
More than 42,000 Georgians are employed in the state’s payments industry, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Kelley said she expects that to grow as long as Atlanta remains a central point for innovation.
“Atlanta is proud of its association with the industry, and the industry is proud to be here,” she said.
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