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PSCU Financial Services, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based credit union service organization, in 2008 processed 644 million debit card transactions, up 22% compared with 528 million in 2007. PSCU, which is owned by 600 credit unions and services 1,300 others, processes both Visa and MasterCard signature and PIN transactions. "We have seen a large growth in our debit business," a spokesperson tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. Overall in 2008, PSCU processed 950 million credit, debit and bill-payment transactions, up 17.4% from 809 million in 2007. PSCU processed 37 million bill-payment transactions last year, up 27.6% from 29 million in 2007, the spokesperson says. In 2008, the cooperative processed 280 million credit card transactions, up 11% from 253 million in 2007. PSCU also reported that it paid a mostly cash dividend of $45.8 million to its 600 owners. The dividend included $35 million from the sale of Visa and MasterCard stock. PSCU apportions the dividend among member owners based of the volume of transactions each member-owner credit union processes through PSCU, the spokesperson says. "Member-owner credit unions received a record 85% of the total dividend in cash," PSCU said in a statement.
