They have been aroundso long, it's easy to begin thinking of them as inert pieces ofplastic. Yet, credit and debit cards remain among the most dynamicproducts credit unions can offer, and they in fact represent anopportunity to serve members at the leading edge.

Consider the growth in credit card spending during 2014.According to the company's analysis of credit transactionsprocessed by CO-OP Financial Services, credit spend steadilyincreased throughout the year. In January 2014, the average spendper card was $363.08, and in January 2015 the average spend was upto $381.18, an increase of five% per card during comparableperiods.

This combines with the continued strong transaction volumes forcards. CO-OP's own analysis of debit and credit transactions itprocessed found the combined total holding strong, even growing,from about 120 million transactions per month in December2013/January 2014 to more than 140 million transactions in November2014.

Credit and debit card use is as vibrant as ever, and newtechnology is adding to its luster, in the form of paymentinnovations, security innovations and data/analytics.

Payment innovations and security innovations, in fact, seem tobe going hand-in-hand.

The introduction of Apple Pay last September brought thetokenization data security process to the forefront. In addition,the Oct. 1, 2015, “liability shift” for EMV is finally bringingthis global standard to the U.S., where it will ultimately be thestandard as well.

CO-OP believes tokenization and EMV together will provide evenbetter security for the U.S. payment system. Think of EMV as thesecurity for a plastic card in a card present transaction, andtokenization as the security for digital transactions, whethermobile, online or in-store.

So while the technologies are similar, they are designed fordifferent use cases. Coupled together they will make it much moredifficult for fraudsters and improve the security of alltransactions. And global interoperability of EMV chip cards isstill a key driver of adoption in the United States.

Apple Pay and other mobile products answer member needs forpayments methods that are fast, brilliant and connected. Butconsumers in equal measure are demanding greater personalization.One answer are card controls and alerts, which enable the user toindividually turn their cards on and off and set spending limits bycategory.

These innovations can be utilized to the maximum through thedata analytics tools now at the ready. Credit unions certainly donot have unlimited resources to encourage low spenders and memberswho are slow to activate their cards.

Analytics tools provide credit unions with deep insight intotheir full portfolio's performance – right down to the transactionsof an individual card, network, merchant and ATM. Armed with thisdata, you can better understand and influence cardholder behavior,and focus on members with the greatest potential through rewardsprograms and other targeted efforts.

There's no question that the credit and debit cards you issueare key drivers toward primary financial institution-relationships,and represent a large and consistent source of revenue.

Your members use cards to interact with you more than any otherform of transaction, and the way you position your cards determinesin large measure how you position your credit union.

With the advances available to you today in cards you can beseen as a technology leader, a secure and fun source of payment, anefficient and rewarding financial services provider, and – in acrisp phrase – first in class.

Ryan Zilker is the senior manager of market analysis forCO-OP Financial Services. He can be reached at 800-782-9042Ext. 3482 or [email protected].