In Brief: CUNA Pays $5M to Kill Card Data Contract

contract with Alltel Information Services seven months after hiring the company to handle data processing for its credit card subsidiary. The combined board of the Madison, Wis., trade group and its subsidiary, CUNA Service Group, voted on Oct. 26 to drop Alltel and return to Banc One Financial Card Services Corp., its original vendor. Unforeseen technical and operational problems delayed the transfer of the Triumph credit card processing system to Alltel from Banc One, said Brad Murphy, CUNA executive vice president of fee-based services. But Mr. Murphy didn't fault Alltel for missing the October deadline. "We feel Alltel did their job as contracted," he said. "It just became a much longer project than we felt we could continue with." Mr. Murphy said he was concerned that Alltel would not be able to disseminate the software by the middle of 1996, when all credit unions affiliated with the CUNA card program would be on the Triumph system. Doris Krain, vice president of human resources and communications for Alltel, said, "This summer it became apparent that there were more technical problems than originally anticipated." CUNA sources said the trade group shelled out $5.4 million to buy out the contract. Mr. Murphy wouldn't comment on the terms of the contract. The Card Services division, which is now returning to Banc One, dropped its contract there after 18 years because Banc One decided to convert its own banks to the Triumph system before it converted credit unions. But now all Banc One-affiliated banks are converted to the system, and it is willing to handle credit unions, Mr. Murphy said.