ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 14, 1996 TAG: 9612160032
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
First Citizens BancShares of Raleigh, N.C., said Friday it is moving 45 jobs to Roanoke to escape stricter credit card laws in its home state.
The bank's credit card operations will open in the spring in the Valley Court office complex on Thirlane Road near Roanoke Regional Airport.
John Francis, executive vice president, said most of the jobs will be filled from local hiring, with only "a handful" of people transferred from Raleigh. The average annual wage for the jobs coming to Roanoke is $22,000, with actual wages range from $15,000 to $50,000, he said.
The bank will be looking for clerical workers, supervisors, credit specialists and underwriters for its credit card operation as well as sales representatives for the merchant service division, which provides payment and collection services to retailers.
Wayne Duncan, executive vice president of retail credit, predicted the number of jobs in the credit card operation will increase "in the next year or so. We anticipate in the near future it will be close to 60.'' He said the bank's credit card business has grown from $60 million to $160 million in the past five years.
The bank has 19 offices in Virginia, including locations in Bedford, Big Island, Blacksburg, Chatham, Clifton Forge, Collinsville and Martinsville. It expects to open three branches in Roanoke and Roanoke County next year, adding another 18 jobs, Francis said.
Although the region's unemployment rate is low and the area already has other large bank-services operations centers, including those run by First Union Corp., Francis said he expects to easily find workers with the required clerical, credit and management skills.
"The quality of the jobs we will be creating here, we think will free up candidates," he said.
While the metropolitan area has a jobless rate of just 2.8 percent, that figure jumps to 3.8 percent when Franklin, Bedford and Montgomery counties are included, said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
She and Virgil Thompson, a supervisor with the Virginia Employment Commission, agreed that First Citizens wages would be competitive.
Roanoke city and the Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium have offered the bank an incentive package of as much as $1,250 per employee in training funds.
Duncan said the bank decided to move its credit card operation out of its home base in Raleigh because North Carolina has among the most restrictive credit regulations in the country.
"Our hands are a little tied," he said.
Paul Stock, executive vice president of the Community Bankers Association of North Carolina, said the state sets a $24 cap on annual fees that credit cards can charge consumers, a maximum interest rate of 18 percent, and a late fee limit of $5 for amounts under $100 and $10 for amounts exceeding $100.
Those restrictions prevent companies from offering lower interest rates by jacking up the annual fees, for example, he said. does not set any Credit card costs to consumers in Virginia are driven by market competition, the agency said.
"The lack of flexibility is just too much to bear," Stock said.
NationsBank, Wachovia and First Union, North Carolina's largest banking companies, already have moved their credit card operations and thousands of jobs out of North Carolina., making First Citizens' operation the largest of its kind in the state.
Stock said banks have lobbied to have the restrictions eased, but the state legislature has refused.
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