The financial services sector has driven economic growth in the Charlotte Region for years. One out of every $7 earned in the Charlotte Region comes directly from financial services, but the industry’s economic impact doesn’t stop there. Financial services contributes more than $28 billion to the region’s economy, more than any other sector. During the downturn of 2020, financial services was one of only two sectors to add jobs, growing at nearly 5% compared to less than 1% nationwide.

The growth of financial services in the region has historic roots. As early as 1927, there was enough banking activity happening in the region that the Federal Reserve opened a branch office in Charlotte. Through much of the twentieth century, North Carolina’s looser regulations on branch and cross-county banking, at a time when most states were tightening regulations, gave North Carolina banks more experience with mergers and acquisitions. When interstate banking became legal in 1985, regional banks like North Carolina National Bank (later Nationsbank, today Bank of America) and First Union (later Wachovia, today Wells Fargo) were primed to benefit. With the 1998 merger and headquarters move of Nationsbank and Bank of America, Charlotte became the second largest banking center in the nation by total assets, a title it maintains today.

With Truist’s headquarters move in 2019, Charlotte became home to the headquarters or largest employment base of three of the country’s six largest banks. Today, more than 93,000 people work in the Charlotte Region’s financial services sector. Employment in the sector is growing fast here, too. With more than 30% employment growth over the past five year, Charlotte is outpacing all competitor cities.

While employment in commercial banking has driven much of the broader financial services sector’s growth in the Charlotte Region, banking is not the only part of the sector. Three subsectors – credit intermediation, insurance, and securities commodities and other financial investments – show the variety of financial activities in the Charlotte Region. Credit intermediation (which includes commercial banking) has both the largest share of total employment and the largest growth rate, growing by more than 42% since 2016, driven largely by increases in mortgage refinancing activities. Insurance subsector jobs have grown by about 15% over the same period, while securities, commodities and other financial investments have grown by about 16%.

While financial institutions in Charlotte are built on historic roots, they are also branching into future-focused domains. With mobile banking and payments growing in popularity, homegrown FinTech startups like AvidXchange and Lending Tree have scaled into large companies. Legacy financial institutions, like the big banks, have also added tech talent. About 9,000 tech workers are employed within Charlotte’s financial services sector, having grown 47% over the past five years.

Tech jobs in the financial services sector show no signs of slowing. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Charlotte Region financial institutions advertised more openings for software developers than for financial managers.

Source: Charlotte Regional Business Alliance