Financial giant Visa plans to open a new hub in midtown Atlanta that is expected to create roughly 1,000 new jobs in the region over the next several years, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday.
The new office will be located in the former headquarters of Norfolk Southern, and it is set to open in 2022 with a focus on technology and client services. The company, one of the world’s largest payment processors, plans to hire staffers for jobs that include product management, software development and cybersecurity, among others.
Visa executive Michelle Gethers-Clark said the firm was drawn to the region by its mix of “expertise and talent with entrepreneurial spirit and a deep sense of community culture.” Kemp credited workforce development initiatives that he said have made Atlanta an epicenter for the financial technology industry.
Atlanta’s history as a banking hub and Georgia’s regulatory climate have helped foster a broad fintech ecosystem in the state that has cultivated companies such as Equifax, First Data, Global Payments, InComm and TSYS. Some estimates show that roughly 70% of global transactions are routed through Atlanta-based firms.
Visa’s investment comes as the payment processing industry has been rocked by new competitors in online and mobile transactions, such as Square and peer-to-peer and business-to-business payments companies such as PayPal and Venmo.
The building that will house Visa’s new office was partly vacated when Norfolk Southern built a new headquarters after complicated negotiations that involved the sale of a plot of land in the Gulch development.
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