Anyone with doubts about the long-term viability of credit unioncredit cards need only look at the numbers and variety of creditcard processing firms which have come to compete for credit unionbusiness.

With the news of the BancVue/TSYSpartnership, credit unions have at least six card processingvendors from which to choose: BancVue/TSYS, TSYS on its own, CO-OPFinancial Services, FIS, PSCU Financial Services, The MembersGroup, and Jack Henry Payment Processing (formerly Pemco). And thisdoes not count credit union leagues that offer their member CUscard processing packages or the numbers of core processing firmsthat also offer the service.

Now, all these organizations offer different products andservices with different advantages and disadvantages and I will notendorse anyone's claim to be the best. But I will point out theyshare two common beliefs. First, credit unions will continueissuing credit cards and, second, that CU card issuing willcontinue to be significantly profitable. It's the second beliefthat is particularly important just now.

Why? Because credit cards today stand at the exact junctionbetween credit unions' need to make loans and Americans need for areasonable and affordable path out of the financial mess they havecollectively gotten themselves into over the last 10 or 15years.

The economic news from CUNA, NAFCU and the NCUA could not beclearer. Credit union loan growth stagnates because the vastmajority of Americans have lost their appetite for additionalborrowing, no matter the interest rate. A low interest rate on anew loan is irrelevant if you are so busy throwing every availabledollar at the loans you already have that the thought of taking onany new debt is impossible. Welcome to what some economists havetaken to calling the Great DE-leveraging; it will take three tofive years for the majority of American households that still havejobs to pay off existing loans before they finally might feelcomfortable taking on any new debt.

To make money in the Great DE-leveraging, credit unions mustaccomplish two things. They have to find members who have both theappetite and the qualifications for new borrowing, and offermembers already paying higher cost debt the sorts of loans they canuse to lower it.

The product best positioned to meet those criteria is the CUcredit card. One or even two reasonably priced credit card accountsat a household struggling to lower its debt load could make thedifference between their having a three-year, teeth-clenching fightto get out of debt and a two-year moderately difficult struggle tomake the same financial goals. Further, credit unions that offertheir members the cards to help achieve that goal will earn theirmember's loyalty and first preference when the time finally arriveswhen they want a new car loan, education loan, home improvementloan or mortgage loan.

Credit unions have a choice. Will they be victims of what may bethe defining American economic trend of a generation, the 21stcentury's equivalent of the Great Depression, or will they beparticipants in its correction?