December 4, 2025
The Atlanta Fed’s Claire Greene. Photo by Stephen Nowland
The Atlanta Fed plays a number of key roles in the payments industry, including operator, supervisor, and researcher. The Bank’s district—which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee—is also a major hub for domestic payments. About 70 percent of US payments flow through Atlanta, earning the metro area the nickname of “Transaction Alley.”
The Bank’s Payments Forum works with financial institutions, the industry, regulators, and law enforcement officials to research and discuss ways to reduce risk in paper, plastic, and digital payments.
Claire Greene has been part of the Payments Forum since 2018. During that time, she’s researched many aspects of payments systems and shared the findings with policymakers and the general public. In her numerous blog posts in the Atlanta Fed’s Take on Payments blog, Greene—along with her Payments Forum colleagues—shares insights about payments trends, risks, and opportunities and connects payments to everyday life. In the latest edition of our Faces of the Atlanta Fed series, Greene, a Payments Forum director, shares insights into her role and the mission that drives her team.
Broadly speaking, why is the Atlanta Fed’s Payments Forum important, and how do its efforts connect with the Fed’s core mission work?
Payments underpin the economic life of our country. Businesses, financial institutions, and consumers all need payments access to participate fully in that life. The Fed system, and the Atlanta Fed in particular, play a critical role in the nation’s payment system by providing services, processing payments, and researching issues related to payments.
The Fed is a data-driven organization, and payments data can help drive decision making by many actors in our economy. It can help Federal Reserve Financial Services predict future needs for machinery to process cash. It can help economists understand consumer use of credit. And it can give innovators ideas about the next payment start-up.
How is the ever-evolving payments landscape shaping your team’s work?
Payments are changing rapidly. Survey data, with its time lags, need to be amplified by qualitative research. My colleagues in the Payments Forum meet regularly with experts at financial institutions, fintechs, payments processers, state and federal agencies, and law enforcement. Our team works to support innovation, identify emerging risks, and educate consumers and businesses. We’re specifically aiming to gather insights that may not be appearing in the quantitative data just yet.
What are some emerging issues the team is examining?
My colleagues are looking into digital identity mechanisms and their ability to support access to payments, at the workings and impact of inventions like crypto assets and stablecoins, at prevention of check and other kinds of fraud, and at the new credit tool buy now pay later. I’m especially interested in discounting and surcharging for various payment methods at the retail point of sale.
Tell us more about your role at the Atlanta Fed.
I collaborate with Fed colleagues on two Federal Reserve surveys: The Federal Reserve Payments Study 
and the Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. I work on question design, data reporting, and data analysis, with the goal of sharing this important data with a broad audience.
For more than two decades, the Federal Reserve Payments Study has reported the number and value of noncash payments in the United States. The survey tracks trends with implications for financial institutions, businesses, consumers, and the Fed’s own payments processing activities. The Atlanta Fed is collecting the 2024 data now, which will be verified and then used to estimate nationally representative totals, which will be released next spring.
The Survey and Diary of Consumer Payments Choice also was in the field this fall. Throughout the month of October, we asked consumers about how they pay. Like the Federal Reserve Payments Study, this data, which has been collected in various forms since 2008, shows the evolution of the payments system and emerging trends. One unique aspect of the survey is that respondents report every payment they make over a three-day period and provide a massive amount of specific detail. This is unusual because many surveys only ask hypothetical questions, which are not necessarily what comes about in real life.
What has your attention in the payments space right now?
With rapid change in payments systems, there is the risk that some consumers and businesses could be left out. Improving economic mobility and resilience is a key part of the Atlanta Fed’s maximum employment mandate—making sure everyone has full access to the various payments methods is part of that achieving that mandate.
In 2021, the Atlanta Fed formed a two-year committee that explored solutions to help cash-reliant individuals better connect to the economy and innovative financial services.
What’s the best thing about your job and working at the Atlanta Fed?
I just love the variety of this job. Every day is different. I am so fortunate in the colleagues I work with here in Atlanta, at the Jacksonville Branch, at the Boston Fed , in Federal Reserve Financial Services , and at the Board of Governors . Many of them have vast technical expertise, and I learn from them every day.
In one word, how would you describe Atlanta’s fintech scene?
Powerhouse. The fintech scene in Atlanta is interconnected and supportive at scale. You have access to big thinkers, world-renowned doers, strong financial institutions, and influential policymakers.
What trend excites you most in fintech over the next 12 months?
Seeing instant payments, especially FedNow adoption, start proving its worth. We have yet to realize how much efficiency and innovation can be achieved from a critical mass of users within the back operations of industries.
