Chris Siebel went nine months without a prospect for sustainable work until a door finally swung open last spring. The 35-year-old father of two was offered a job at the new Wells Fargo Financial call center in Vancouver.

"I am living life again," said Siebel, who has a high-school equivalent certificate. "I am going to work for eight hours a day and then going home, and feeling good."

Siebel lost his earlier job when a bank division closed in Beaverton, Ore. Now he is among thousands working in one of Clark County's fastest-growing employment sectors: the debt industry.

For all the effort to recruit jobs here, little has been said about growth related to banks, mortgage lenders, payday loans, credit card businesses, repossession services, auto lending, credit counseling and other services.

Debt-related jobs tracked by the state provide a glimpse of what's happening in the county.

In 1990, there were about 1,532 county residents working in debt-related jobs at banks, credit unions and mortgage companies.

By 2003 that total had jumped to 2,332 an increase of 52 percent.

In 1990, local debt-related wages for those jobs totaled $30.66 million. In 2003, that has risen to $113 million well over three times more.

"Basically, the industry has been growing slightly faster than the average for all industries in the county over the past decade," said Scott Bailey, regional labor analyst for the Washington Employment Security Department.

He sees no signs of near-term change in the pattern.

Debt-related jobs here also are growing slightly faster than the statewide average, all thanks to a competitive banking environment and the county's continuing strong population growth, which in turn drives mortgage lending and other consumer debt. And while industry consolidations have brought job cuts to bank headquarters operations around Seattle, there has been less effect on retail banking in other markets, such as Clark County.

Riverview Community Bank in Vancouver, for example, has seen its loan business more than double, from $159 million in fiscal 1999 to $376 million in fiscal 2004, which ended March 31.

"Five years ago, we had fewer than 100 employees, and now, we have almost 200," said Ron Wysaske, Riverview's executive vice president.

At Bank of Clark County, president Mike Worthy said loan officers have increased from one in 1999, to 10.

New jobs

Several of the largest new employers moving here in the past 18 months are debt-related.

Wells Fargo Financial, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, opened its regional customer service center at 521 S.E. Chkalov Drive early last year. The operation now employs 250 and generates an annual payroll of $9.5 million.

In a sprawling room inside the center is an erasable board with columns reading: "Accts. per hour" "$ Now Due," and "Collect bills."

Employees including Chris Siebel call clients throughout the West, who are 30 to 180 days late on loan payments of all types home equity, business financing, mortgage, car and personal loans. A collections center in Des Moines, Iowa, employing 550, handles the East Coast.

Formerly, collections were spread throughout Wells Fargo's 700 financial offices. The consolidation allowed the offices to focus on making loans in turn feeding the collection business.

"We have enough space to add employees, as needs arise," said Mike Hiber, who runs the Vancouver operation, which moved from Portland after running out of space.

The Vancouver operation could grow into space still available inside its 44,000 square-feet building with the remainder used for a mortgage division, he said.

Another large job creator, Millennium Funding Group, landed in downtown Vancouver from Portland in June 2003, taking a floor in the Bank of America Financial Center downtown. The operation then grew from 60 jobs to 106 as business for the subprime lender grew. Twenty to 30 more hires are expected at the company's Vancouver operation this year.

Millennium sells home loans to those who don't meet the criteria of conventional lenders. As a group, subprime lenders charge higher loan rates

The company bundles together loan packages of $15 million to $20 million and sells them on secondary markets to investment companies, which in turn sell them to individual investors far from the local scene.

This year, Millennium expects to generate $700 million in sales, more than twice the $305 million last year. To boost volume, Millennium invites investors to visit its offices to do research preceding transactions.

"We have probably four or five people from other companies here on a daily basis, so that brings a lot of income to this community, as well," said Dan King, Millennium's president. "They are staying at local hotels, eating at local restaurants."

With office space running out sooner than expected, King said that work is under way to lease more.

Not all jobs counted

Debt-related jobs tracked by the state may not include the full spectrum of employment in that sector.

For example, Vancouver-based Columbia Ultimate employs 162 in the design and sales of accounts-receivable and debt-collection software. The company recently expanded and could add 50 employees over the next two years.

Another niche business, Total Merchant Concepts in Vancouver, owned by Dean and Cheri Perry, sells and installs credit card equipment. The Perrys have 1,600 customers in 13 states.

Total Merchant Concepts is all but invisible at the far end of a pizza parlor at 12300-A N.E. Fourth Plain Boulevard. But in June alone, the firm did nearly $12.9 million in processing volume $3 million more than the same month a year ago.

The company also connects merchants and banks into credit-card processing systems.

"Last month, we put on 78 new merchants, and this month we are on track to kick the pants off that number," Cheri Perry said.

Since the Perrys started the business more than seven years ago, it has grown to 11 employees, with seven outside sales representatives who work on commission. In May, space was doubled to 2,200 square feet. Plans are to hire four more in-house employees before year's end.

Seeing it happen

Vancouver consultant Eric Hovee said he can't speak in specific terms about the debt industry's economic impact in Clark County, but can see what's happened.

"There has been a huge explosion in the number of lenders in the market," said Hovee. "It used to be they were basically savings and loans, commercial banks or mortgage brokers, and all of them had physical addresses in the community. Now, the number and type of entities has just proliferated, and some of them are doing it on the Internet."

In the first three months of this year, banks and other lenders and brokers generated $987 million in mortgage loans in Clark County, according to Real Estate Solutions, a Sacramento, Calif., tracking service.

Meanwhile, local bankruptcy filings have also shot up, providing business for lawyers and others who work that field.

In the past six years, the bankruptcy caseload in Clark County has risen by nearly 44 percent, from 2,007 filings in 1997, to 2,886 last year. Through the first six months of this year, 1,508 Clark County bankruptcy filings have been recorded with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Western Washington, down slightly from last year's pace.

Sharing that business are lawyers, repossession agents, finance restructurers, legal assistants, auctioneers, credit counselors and credit repair services. The latter work to scrub up stained credit reports.

There also are collection agencies. Qwest Yellow Pages lists 18 collection agencies, of which eight are in Clark County. Some have developed specialties.

Payday outlets

A visible and growing debt-related industry, payday loan outlets, has moved aggressively into the local market in the past eight years.

Payday loans target consumers needing cash until their next paycheck amounts too small for customary bank loans. Payday lenders may charge up to $7.50 for every $50 borrowed up to $500. Amounts above that carry a maximum $5 fee per $50 borrowed.

CZ Payday Loans was something of a novelty when it opened in Vancouver in 1997, a year after the state approved such businesses. Seven years later, there are many players. The Yellow Pages lists 14 payday loan businesses, some, with two and three locations in the county.

CZ Payday Loans operates three branches employing 26, including many college students who work part-time.

Co-owner Dennis Zea left an executive position in banking after four mergers to start the loan business. Zea said his business has been basically flat for the past year or two because of growing competition. He's heard from people who have pondered if they, too, should open a payday loan outlet.

"I tell them, 'If I were in your position, I would pick a state that is just being licensed and go there. ... Washington has been pretty well saturated.'"

Mortgage brokers

Vancouver's Ivan Jensen was only beginning to venture into mortgage brokering when he started a business, Discover Mortgage, in 1994. Three months ago, he sold his interest in what had grown to a 19-location company, to dive into a new one: Prestige Home Mortgages.

Since then, Prestige has grown to six locations in Washington and Portland.

Jensen is an example of how mortgage brokers have edged into the market. Fifteen years ago, mortgage brokers were handling an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the home loan business here. Now they are doing about 65 percent.

In Clark County, that translates to well over 50 brokers and growth for a lot of small lending companies.

"The business is always there," says Jensen, president of the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers. "I am looking at 20 to 25 locations in the next five years," he said.

He has two Clark County locations and plans perhaps two more based on the area's growth. Other locations would be in Oregon, other parts of Washington and Idaho. "But I am also looking at Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California," Jensen said.

If Clark County's population continues to grow at its current pace of between 1.5 and 3 percent a year and people keep buying houses and using credit cards, the future of the local debt industry seems secure.

In 10 years, debt-related employment could grow by another 1,200 jobs, if trends continue.

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