A payments company that moves roughly $2 trillion a day across the United States is setting up a new hub in Charlotte, bringing 200 jobs that pay nearly double the area's average salary. The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. plans to invest $11.5 million to build out the operation, with jobs arriving between 2028 and 2031.
Charlotte Edges Out Three Rival Cities
Charlotte beat out Atlanta, Dallas and Tampa for the hub, according to the Charlotte Observer. Mark Poole, director of commerce finance at the N.C. Department of Commerce, said the company plans to establish a strategic workplace and client engagement hub in the city, and that the selection came down to quality of life, connectivity to New York City and workforce comparisons, per the same report.
Gov. Josh Stein's office confirmed the broad strokes of the deal, saying in a statement that the company will add 200 jobs in Mecklenburg County while investing $11.5 million to expand its operations in Charlotte, according to the North Carolina Governor's office. The company has pledged to complete the investment by December 31, 2030, with hiring stretching from 2028 through 2031, the Observer's report notes.
Big Money on the Table for Incentives
The N.C. Economic Investment Committee approved a Job Development Investment Grant worth up to $3.24 million over 12 years to support the expansion, per the same account. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are kicking in roughly $210,000 more in combined local incentives, and the company may also receive $385,000 in training tax incentives, the report states.
The jobs themselves carry a hefty price tag for the company to justify the public investment. The Clearing House Payments Company will pay a minimum average wage of $162,322 — compared with an average salary of $90,706 across Mecklenburg County, according to the Observer's reporting. The company did not immediately respond to the paper's request for comment on Tuesday.
A 173-Year-Old Institution With Deep Pockets
The Clearing House traces its roots back to 1853 and is headquartered in New York, owned by major commercial banks, according to The Clearing House. The company describes itself as the only private-sector operator of ACH and wire transfers in the country, and says it clears and settles nearly $2 trillion in U.S. dollar payments daily — representing half of all commercial ACH and wire volume, per the same source. The Observer's seed reporting describes that daily figure as over $2 trillion, a discrepancy from the company's own nearly $2 trillion claim. The Clearing House also launched its RTP real-time payment system in November 2017, according to the company.
This isn't the company's first North Carolina expansion. Back in 2018, The Clearing House announced it was bringing high-wage technology jobs to Forsyth County and partnering with the county's education system to build out its tech workforce, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The company now has 216 employees in Forsyth County, per the Observer's reporting.
Fitting Into Charlotte's Financial Workforce
The new hub lands in a metro area already heavily staffed with finance professionals. Charlotte had 116,030 jobs in business and financial operations as of the most recent data, accounting for 8.5 percent of local employment compared with 6.8 percent nationally, with an average hourly wage of $47.90 for that occupational group, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average weekly wages across all industries in the Charlotte area also outpaced the national figure, running $1,785 versus $1,654 in the first quarter of 2026, per the bureau's regional economic summary.
