Most credit union credit card portfolios continue to shrink, although total assets remained stable during the
AssetExchange, a credit card consulting and brokerage firm for credit unions, said several trends are worthy of note from the first
* 59% of credit card portfolios were smaller in March 2003 than in March 2002, continuing the trend of portfolio shrinkage
* Total card assets grew about 2.5% since March 2002, an indication that growth from a minority of portfolios offset the
* Reflecting the normal Q1 seasonal drop (due primarily to consumers that pay down debt accumulated over the holidays), 95% of
Card penetration is gradually falling.
* Penetration has been gradually dropping (in figure above, curves shifting to left over time) due to intense card competition.
* Most CUs have a 10-30% cross-sell penetration of their card into the membership.
* Large CUs exhibit higher card penetration.
* An estimated 10 CU card portfolios were sold in Q1 2003, with total value of about $80 million.
* Portfolios sold ranged from $1 million to $32 million.
* This pace matches the 2002 pace in number sold, but average portfolio size and total dollars is about 50% larger. Almost all