FINTECH FINDS NOTHING COULD BE FINER

Charlotte and the Triangle are leading the way as North Carolina becomes a fintech hub.

—By Lawrence Bivins

The post-pandemic transformation of the workplace has shuffled the deck for communities and companies hoping to draw ­— and keep — tech-savvy employees. The work-from-anywhere trend has led to an exodus from crowded, expensive metro areas like New York City and San Francisco for more affordable and livable places.

North Carolina’s global leadership in banking, information technology and financial services makes it a natural fit for businesses and professionals in “fintech.” This modern industry serves both businesses and consumers with applications that make financial transactions and money management faster, more convenient, safer and more efficient. Globally, the fintech market is projected to reach $460 billion by 2025, according to a study by Adroit Market Research.

Charlotte, the nation’s second-largest financial service center, continues to gather the lion’s share of the state’s fintech attention and job growth, though the Triangle and Wilmington are also poised for a sizable cut of the market.

The Queen City is enjoying an impressive run of announcements by major names. In mid 2022, The Bank of London unveiled plans to base its U.S. Global Platform & Services headquarters in Charlotte, a move that will spark a $33 million annual payroll impact for the region when staffing is complete in 2026. The bank will employ 350 people at the intersection of Trade and Tryon streets in the center of the city. Staff will include software developers, engineers, technology professionals and risk management specialists.

“We’ve chosen Charlotte as a key location to drive our agenda forward, enabled by Charlotte’s unique combination of banking talent, technologists and financial business leaders,” according to Jim Ditmore, co-president and group operating officer at The Bank of London. The company’s clients range from banks and clearing houses to government agencies and global payment networks.

Launched in 2021, The Bank of London, also has offices in New York City, Belfast and London. “The Bank of London has truly game-changing and patented technology that will power the borderless economy of the future,” Ditmore says.

Developing Charlotte’s fintech cluster is a clear priority for local leaders.

“We continue to demonstrate that Charlotte is the epicenter of where finance and technology converge,” said Mayor Vi Lyles, upon joining The Bank of London officials in announcing the bank’s choice of Charlotte for its U.S. operations. “This announcement further builds on our strategic international partnerships, and I look forward to seeing The Bank of London’s growth in our city.”

County and municipal leaders have seized on fintech as a path to bringing additional diversification to Charlotte’s labor market, which had been stung by the loss of high-dollar banking jobs in the wake of the Great Recession 15 years ago.

“Charlotte is aware of how valuable the industry is and how it can sow prosperity for a really broad array of citizens,” says Chris Kouri, an economic development attorney at the Charlotte office of Nexsen Pruet who advises businesses on site selection. When recruiting fintech companies, government entities can deploy the Business Investment Program, a local economic development incentive that triggers lucrative state benefits available under the Jobs Development and Investment Grant (JDIG) program. Charlotte’s capacity to meet JDIG’s local match requirement, for example, enabled the North Carolina Department of Commerce to offer performance-based awards totaling more than $13.2 million to LendingTree.

The leading online marketplace for consumer financial services announced major expansions to its Charlotte headquarters in 2016 and 2018.

LendingTree was founded in Charlotte in the late 1990s, and its phenomenal success has prompted significant additions to both its office space and talent force.

“I’m thrilled that this city and the State of North Carolina will remain the indisputable location for our corporate headquarters as we expand our footprint and advance our leadership position within the Fintech industry,” said Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree.

“LendingTree has experienced incredible growth in recent years, and after a thorough process, we are excited to continue that growth in Charlotte.” The firm also maintains offices in California, New York City and Chicago.

“Charlotte leaders have seen over the last decade the quality of jobs created by fintech, the entrepreneurial nature of that industry, and how these companies support a vibrant start-up community here,” Kouri says. State support is critical, he adds, but given Mecklenburg County’s significant size and wealth, state programs require local partners to be on board. “There are also a lot of workforce programs city and county staff are knowledgeable about and can connect clients to.”

Programs include customized training from Central Piedmont Community College, employee screening and hiring support available through Charlotte Works, the local workforce development board, and strategic partnerships with institutions such as UNC Charlotte, one of North Carolina’s largest higher education campuses.

Retirement Clearinghouse similarly exemplifies Charlotte’s competitive edge in fintech. Founded there in 2001, the company uses innovative technologies to provide retirement-plan management services to workers nationwide as they navigate among employers and retirement plans during their careers. In 2020, the company announced a $4.1 million expansion that brought 300 new jobs to Charlotte. Through
a network of partnerships with 401(k) recordkeepers, third-party administrators and pension plan sponsors, Retirement Clearinghouse has reduced employee cash-outs by 52%, thus enhancing retirement prospects for millions of American workers, according to the company.

A plus for area employees, the company’s new hires include individuals without college degrees or prior experience in finance or technology.

“The ability to tap into Charlotte’s hidden sources of fintech talent has been huge for them,” says Kouri, who advised Retirement Clearinghouse. “This is a company that can work with folks at all levels,” providing in-house training for those lacking the formal educational credentials and career backgrounds other tech companies seek.

The distinction resonated with local officials, creating synergies between the firm and the city. “Retirement Clearinghouse needed access to people to fill all their new positions just as Charlotte was working hard to connect an overlooked pool of job seekers with livable job opportunities,” Kouri says. “It was a win-win situation.”

 

TRIANGLE TAKING ITS PIECE OF THE FINTECH MARKET

Steady flows of finance, business, computer science and engineering graduates from Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University and North Carolina State University have helped fuel the success of companies like MetLife, Credit Suisse, Fidelity Investments, Deutsche Bank and others drawn to the Triangle in recent years as consumer tastes shift to digitally based financial products.

The pandemic accelerated that transition, which was among the reasons Fidelity Investments decided to significantly boost its RTP-based technology and customer contact staff in 2021.

Credit Suisse is another fintech operation that has relied heavily on local talent, especially Wake Technical Community College graduates, since arriving in the area in 2005. About half the Swiss company’s 2,000 Triangle employees work in technology operations.

In 2022, the company announced a $250,000 commitment through its Credit Suisse Americas Foundation (CSAF) to support the college’s WakeWorks® Apprenticeship program. WakeWorks® offers young people strategic pathways to career opportunities through skills development, access to employers, earned income and “stackable” credentials. The funds will help Wake Tech broaden apprenticeships across a wider network of local employers.

“At Wake Tech, we sometimes use the phrase ‘ladder economics’ to refer to our college’s approach to inclusive opportunity through education, training and career development,” says Wake Tech President Scott Ralls. “The support by Credit Suisse will make a difference by ensuring that apprenticeship opportunities are more readily accessible and more people in our communities have the opportunity to ladder into the outstanding job opportunities available today in our region.”

INNOVATIVE RALEIGH CREDIT UNION PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE

Some homegrown North Carolina financial pioneers are using technologies to reach underserved consumers across the state. That is the mission of Civic Federal Credit Union, which was chartered in 2019 as a digital-first not-for-profit financial institution. It works to reach municipal governments and employees in the small towns that increasingly lack brick-and-mortar commercial banks.

“We provide services to the people who keep our state running,” explains Lamar Heyward, chief marketing officer at Civic FCU. “We wanted to start a credit union from the ground up with best-of-breed financial services that are competitive with other institutions in the marketplace.”

Headquartered in north Raleigh, Civic FCU has no physical branches or ATMs. Still, after only three years, it serves 3,800 members statewide and currently has assets totaling $100 million – both measures achieved solely through organic growth.

Its success has earned it recognition as one of America’s fastest-growing credit unions by Callahan & Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based research firm that tracks credit union trends.

“We’re now turning up more of a focus on the consumer market with best-in-class products that can compete with the best banks and credit unions in the country,” according to Heyward.

Civic FCU utilizes its not-for-profit mission to offer competitive yields on savings products, low rates on auto loans and rebated user fees on transactions conducted at ATMs of other financial institutions. It offers a 1 percent dividend yield on checking account balances, and it hopes to launch a mortgage product by 2024. Civic’s workforce totals 215, with more growth on the horizon.

“We’ve had a lot of success attracting and retaining talent because of our mission,” Heyward says. “We not only have access to great people with the right skills, but people with commitment and passion who are interested in working with an institution that can help build better lives and better futures for people who are serving our communities.”

FINTECH WORKFORCE GROWING IN WILMINGTON

Chris Ainsworth is among the many professionals finding a change of scenery in the Tar Heel State. In June 2022, the global human resource executive arrived in Wilmington to begin work as chief people officer at nCino Inc., a fast-growing provider of banking software founded and headquartered in the port city. Ainsworth, whose career has included positions at financial giants in New York and New Jersey, was eager to join a disruptive firm in a community hungry to build on its reputation as a fintech hub.

“As a recent transplant to North Carolina myself, I am privileged to join a company that is passionate about progressing the industry forward, helping to grow the region and making a meaningful impact within our local community,” says Ainsworth, who is one of 420 workers nCino has recruited to Wilmington from around the country since 2020. “It remains a top priority for nCino to attract top talent and, ultimately, contribute to the city and state’s growing status as a tech hub.”

The July 2020 initial public offering for nCino was a showcase for one of fintech’s hottest names. The company was started in Wilmington in 2011 with 15 employees. With a name derived from the Spanish word for “live oak,” nCino now has an 1,800-person global workforce housed at offices in Wilmington, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The company’s financial technologies are used by 1,200 financial institutions around the world. Its cloud-based nCino Bank Operating System helped financial institutions across the globe support businesses during the pandemic, so that lenders could respond quickly to the needs of customers during that uniquely challenging time.

The company’s high-profile IPO along with its growing success, has similarly put Wilmington on Wall Street’s radar screen.

“Greater Wilmington’s economic diversification took on a new dimension with the successful IPO by nCino in 2020,” says Scott Satterfield, chief executive officer at Wilmington Business Development (WBD), a nonprofit that oversees economic development for the city and surrounding New Hanover and Pender counties. “No longer is North Carolina’s fintech story only about Charlotte and Research Triangle Park.”

When combined with the success of Live Oak Bank, a homegrown digital-only bank that is the nation’s No. 1 SBA lender, nCino has underscored Wilmington’s powerful brand as a magnet for technical talent.

“All of this activity has put our region on the map as a center for fintech operations,” says Satterfield. He also credits Wilmington’s modern digital infrastructure, abundant Class A office space, user-friendly international airport, and attractive business and living costs as factors behind the success of nCino, Live Oak Bank and other companies. ■

 

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