A financial technology giant plans to add 500 jobs in north metro Atlanta over the next five years, adding to the region’s dominance in payment processing.
Fiserv on Friday said the new jobs will accompany a consolidation of existing Atlanta area operations at a location in Alpharetta. Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv is one of the largest payment processing and financial technology firms.
The company already has about 2,000 workers — or nearly 10 percent of its workforce — scattered across six metro Atlanta sites.
Fiserv’s expansion adds to the region’s clout as a payments and financial technology hub, said Roger Tutterow, a Mercer University economist. The state is home to more than 90 financial technology companies, including First Data, Global Payments, NCR and TSYS, according to the Technology Association of Georgia.
About two-thirds of the 135 billion payment card transactions worldwide in 2011 crossed over the systems of financial technology companies with major operations in Georgia, according to TAG.
Fiserv could be eligible for $10 million in incentives from the state, including tax credits for new jobs and a $1.25 million grant, according to information provided by the state Department of Economic Development and an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of jobs tax credits data.
A Fiserv spokeswoman said in an e-mail she could not give specifics about the new jobs, but she said they will be “professional roles.” Fiserv has thousands of bank and other financial industry clients, she said, and the new jobs will involve technology development or support roles such as sales or marketing.
State and local economic development officials have put more attention of late on cultivating growth among existing businesses in Georgia, in addition to wooing companies to relocate. Much of that attention has been directed to specific industries, such as financial technology where the region already has a strong core, Tutterow said.
“Economic developers certainly have been targeting health care service firms, financial services and technology,” he said. “These are areas we’ve had some wins in.”
Fiserv was founded in 1984, and has more than 16,000 clients and approximately 21,000 employees, according to its website. The company had $4.55 billion in revenue in 2013 and net profit of $795 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
In 2007, Fiserv acquired Norcross-based online banking and bill payment firm CheckFree for more than $4 billion and expanded its presence in metro Atlanta. Among Fiserv’s local office locations is CheckFree’s former campus in Norcross.
The consolidation will likely be a hit to the office market in Gwinnett County, where Fiserv had the bulk of its local operations.
Fiserv announced Friday it has leased space at 2900 and 2950 Westside Parkway in an office park known as Cobalt Center. The company had been scouting for new office space in the northern metro area for months, several commercial real estate insiders said. The search focused particularly along Ga. 400.
“We have completed a number of acquisitions in the Atlanta area over the years and it is a key technology center for Fiserv,” Fiserv president and chief executive officer Jeff Yabuki said in a news release. “We are excited to bring our associates together in a collaborative and innovative environment supported by the latest workplace technology. Enhancing the connections among our associates will have a positive impact on their professional lives and enable us to best serve our clients.”
The company said the relocation will take place through 2016.
Alpharetta bills itself as the “Technology City of the South.” The north Fulton County city is home to major operations of multinational companies such as health care IT giant McKesson and Hewlett-Packard.
Fiserv’s announcement follows other significant corporate consolidations in metro Atlanta, including Illinois-based State Farm, which has leased space in several buildings in the Perimeter Mall area and plans a national operations center campus in Dunwoody. Athenahealth, MailChimp and Cardlytics recently announced expansions and campus moves to the Ponce City Market redevelopment in the mammoth former City Hall East building on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta.
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