The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is hosting a new advisory group for the region’s payments processing industry, Fed officials and industry leaders announced. The advisory group, called PeachPay, held its first meeting last Tuesday as part of an effort to increase dialogue about innovation, risk and regulatory and policy issues that may affect the payments industry. 

“It is part of the Atlanta Fed’s mission to promote the safety and soundness of the financial system and to represent the interests of the southeastern United States,” said Mary Kepler, senior vice president and director of the Atlanta Fed’s Retail Payments Risk Forum. “PeachPay will help us accomplish the goals specifically related to payments, as well as help with their ongoing integration into an economy where consumers are demanding more transaction flexibility, security and efficiency.”

Kepler said that Atlanta is a logical location for PeachPay to meet, because more than 60 percent of the electronic payments industry companies are either based or have operations in Atlanta, according to the American Transaction Processors Coalition (ATPC). As much as 70 percent of all U.S. payments processed annually run through Georgia. The industry directly employs more than 40,000 people in the state while contributing billions of dollars in economic activity.

ATPC Executive Director H. West Richards said, “The payments processing industry is vitally important to the southeastern region’s economy, and PeachPay will provide an important forum to discuss how technology and policy will combine to ensure a healthy and secure financial system.”

PeachPay resulted from the collaboration between the Atlanta Fed and the ATPC, the trade association representing the interests of companies in the Georgia-dominated payments industry.

“We applaud the formation of PeachPay and thank the Atlanta Fed for making sure that Georgia’s payments processing companies have a seat at the table when discussing the pressing policy issues facing the industry,” Richards added.

Founding participants of PeachPay include the ATPC, Worldpay US, Elavon, FIS Global, InComm, Merchant e-Solutions (a Cielo company), Ingenico, Vesta, Bluefin Payment Systems, First Data Corporation, TSYS, NCR, Global Payments, Verifone, and Holland & Knight LLP.