The Clearing House picks Charlotte for a 200-job operations center

The Clearing House Payments Company, the bank-owned firm behind the CHIPS, EPN and RTP payment networks, will open a client operations center in Charlotte with 200 jobs and an $11.5 million investment, Gov. Josh Stein announced on October 27. The state’s Economic Investment Committee approved a performance-based grant for the project the same day, the N.C. Department of Commerce said.

The new jobs will pay an average of $162,322 a year, well above the Mecklenburg County average wage of $90,706, according to the state. The state, county and company announcements give no street address, building or opening date. Hiring is already under way, though: on October 29, 27 of the 35 openings on the company’s careers site carried a “Charlotte Office” tag.

The deal at a glance

The main numbers come from the state’s announcement and a release from Mecklenburg County:

• The company will add 200 jobs in Mecklenburg County and invest $11.5 million.
• The average salary for the new jobs is $162,322, against a county average of $90,706.
• The state puts the potential annual payroll impact for the region at more than $32.4 million.
• A Job Development Investment Grant could reimburse the company up to $2,430,000 over 12 years.
• The county describes the site as a client engagement and experience center plus a corporate workplace for 200 employees.

What The Clearing House does

The Clearing House does not provide services to the general public or hold accounts or funds for others, according to the company’s website. The company runs payment systems for banks instead, and the state says those networks clear and settle more than $2 trillion each business day through wire, ACH, real-time payment and check-image services.

Founded in 1853, The Clearing House is, in the company’s words, a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks. The company also says the payments arm of The Clearing House is the only private-sector ACH and wire operator in the United States.

The Clearing House runs four payment networks, described here as they appear on the company’s website:

• CHIPS handles high-value U.S. dollar wire payments, domestic and cross-border, and processes more than 630,000 transactions each business day for 43 direct participant banks.
• The Electronic Payments Network is an ACH operator that the company says handles about half of U.S. commercial ACH volume, with an operating history dating to 1974.
• The RTP network, launched in 2017, settles payments of up to $10 million around the clock and handled 150 million transactions worth $621 billion in the third quarter of 2026.
• The Image Exchange Network, known as SVPCO, lets financial institutions of all sizes exchange check images.

Why Charlotte, in their words

Stein tied the decision to the city’s banking base. “Charlotte is the second-largest financial center in the nation,” he said in the state’s announcement. President and CEO David Watson said in the company’s own release that “Charlotte is an ideal location for The Clearing House.” Watson pointed to the city’s banking industry and talent pool, WFAE reported.

Local officials welcomed the project in the county release. “This investment underscores the confidence leading companies have in our city,” said Charlotte Mayor Rob Harrington. Mark Jerrell, chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, said the county’s greatest strength is its people and called the company a new partner that will create good jobs.

The state lists its partners on the project as the Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the General Assembly, the Division of Workforce Solutions, the N.C. Community College System, Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte. The state and county releases give no city or county incentive amount.

How the state grant works

The grant is paid only if the company delivers. State payments come after the departments of Commerce and Revenue verify each year that The Clearing House met the job creation and investment targets in the agreement, according to the Commerce release. Over the 12-year term, the state estimates the project will grow North Carolina’s economy by $1.3 billion, and it projects a 282 percent return on public dollars, or $3.82 in state revenue for every $1 of potential cost.

Mecklenburg is a Tier 3 county in the state’s economic tier system, so the agreement also calls for moving as much as $810,000 into the state’s Industrial Development Fund Utility Account, which helps rural communities anywhere in North Carolina pay for infrastructure upgrades to attract business.

A long history in North Carolina

Charlotte isn’t the company’s first North Carolina site. The Clearing House has run an operations center in Winston-Salem since 2007, according to Mecklenburg County. In April 2018, then-Gov. Roy Cooper announced a Winston-Salem expansion of 50 jobs and $24.6 million, backed by a performance-based $150,000 One North Carolina Fund grant, and the company employed more than 170 people in Forsyth County at the time, the state said. The new jobs were projected to average $95,560 a year.

The company’s careers page still says employees work primarily in New York City and Winston-Salem. The Charlotte postings range from director of RTP product management, director of strategy and director of sales to software, cloud and Linux engineers and enterprise risk analysts. One director-level posting, listed on October 23, says the person hired will work from the office three days a week.

Where the deal fits in Charlotte’s run of finance deals

The announcement follows a string of financial-services expansions in and around Charlotte since mid-2025:

• SMBC Group announced on April 7 a second U.S. headquarters in Uptown with 2,000 jobs by the end of 2032, at an average salary of $165,686, according to Mecklenburg County.
• Capital Group announced a 600-job East Coast operations hub on March 26 and held a ribbon-cutting on September 29, according to the governor’s office.
• Daimler Truck Financial Services USA announced a 276-job North American headquarters on May 27, 2025, with an average salary of $133,940, and opened in Ballantyne in September.
• Citi announced more than 500 Charlotte jobs on July 8, 2025, at an average salary of $131,832, WBTV reported.

Over the past 12 months, Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte have partnered on projects expected to create about 5,172 jobs and more than $563.7 million in capital investment, including Scout Motors, Maersk and SMBC, the county said. In a September 29 release on the ribbon-cuttings, the governor’s office said North Carolina’s financial services industry has grown 25% since 2019.

What hasn’t been announced

Several basics were not in the state, county or company announcements as of October 29: the office address, when the center opens and the year by which the company must reach 200 jobs. Job seekers can search the Charlotte openings on the company’s careers site, where the postings are tagged “Charlotte Office.”

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