SAN DIEGO-An emerging trend in which CUs that had previously sold their card programs only to bring them back in house is showing no sign of abating, according to Symitar.
President Ted Bilke has noticed the change due to all the requests from client CUs. "We have had to add more capacity on our side to manage card program conversions and set them up. This continues the reversal of a trend we saw over five years ago, when many credit unions sold off their credit card portfolios."
Bilke believes the shift is happening because many of these same CUs that sold their portfolios now see credit cards as one of the best performing assets, given that it's risky to keep long-term mortgages on the books and tight margins are cutting down revenue from many consumer loans.
While more credit unions are bringing cards back inside, the opposite is true for data processing. Bilke said more credit unions each year lean to outsourcing the capability. "We continue to see better than 50% of new contracts signed are for our outsourced platform-more than we have ever seen in our history."
A new and growing area of interest, concluded Bilke, is in member data mining, especially for lending. "Credit unions know they have to work harder to get loans now," said Bilke, who added that CUs are choosing Symitar's Refi Analyzer, which allows CUs to sift through credit reports and monitor trade lines to find opportunities to refinance members' loans or spot an opportunity to make a new loan.
