ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Processing credit and debit cards brought Certegy, the leading card processor for credit unions, $167 million in 2002, the company has reported. That represents an increase of $4.8 million, or 2.9%, over the same quarter last year. "Excluding nonrecurring revenue of $6.3 million in the company's e-banking operations during the third quarter of 2001, Card Services' revenue increased by 7.1 percent (8.2 percent in local currency), driven by a 12.7 percent increase in merchant processing revenue and a 5.0 percent increase in North American card issuing revenue," the company reported. But international card processing revenue declined in the third quarter, the company said, brought down by currency instability in Brazil. Excluding Latin America, the company added, international card processing revenue increased by over 27%. Certegy also added 2.2 million cards globally during the quarter, increasing its North American card base to 22.2 million and its international card base to 24.0 million.