The buclic burg of dublin, Ohio is headquarters for Wendy's International, the hamburger chain, and for another firm, less well known but far more controversial: National Century Financial Enterprises. This 11-year-old outfit has become the nation's largest purchaser of hospital, physician and other health care receivables. NCFE buys the paper, then pools and sells it in the form of asset-backed securities to institutional investors. NCFE boasts of purchasing $15 billion in receivables since its founding, and, with help from Credit Suisse First Boston, securitiz-ing $6 billion of them on Wall Street. The bonds end up in the portfolios of the esteemed Pimco funds, Fremont Mutual Funds and UBS PaineWebber's fund family, among other places. Although the complexity of the business and uncertainty of payment on the receivables has humbled more than one competitor, it's been hugely successful for NCFE and its bearded cofounder and chief executive, Lance Poulsen, 59. The privately held company posted revenue last year of $307 million. Poulsen claims its net income is "in excess of $40 million" and lets on that this figure has more than doubled over the last two years.
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