PORTLAND, Ore. -- An analysis of NCUA's year-end data from AssetExchange, a leading broker of credit union card portfolios,indicates that fewer credit unions reported the sales of theircredit card portfolios to NCUA in 2006 than in 2005 and the valueof the outstanding balances of the portfolios also decreased.

Asset Exchange's analysis showed that approximately 65 creditunions sold their card portfolios in 2006 (23 in the last quarterof the year), down 7% from the 70 that sold their portfolios in2005. The total value of the portfolios sold was $454 million for2006 ($125 million in the last quarter), which is down 3% from lastyear's value of $470 million.

The card broker's analysis also suggested more credit unionswere better managing their card portfolios. Card penetration, longstagnant or slightly falling, rose again; total card assetsincreased by almost 9% to $26.1 billion while the percentage ofcards in the total mix of CU assets also increased, from 4.31% for2005 to 4.63% last year.

The increase in card penetration, long a gradually decliningfigure, had more to do with overall credit union membershipflattening out than with the number of new card accounts increasingdramatically. The card broker reported that the number of cardaccounts only rose from 11.4 million card accounts as of the end of2005 to 11.5 million as of the end of 2006.

Brookwood Capital, another card broker that also tracks carddata, reported that its analysis indicated that 69 credit unionssold their portfolios in 2006, which is up from the 67 that hadbeen the previous record in 2004.

Tim Kolk, managing partner with the Peterborough, N.H.-basedfirm, said he had no explanation for the discrepancy except thatAsset Exchange and Brookwood might not have used precisely the sametime frames for their portfolio calculations and may not have madethem at the same time. Since both firms do not collect data forsales of portfolios of outstanding balances of less than $1million, it is possible that some portfolios may have been countedby one firm and not counted by another.

"We have never sat down and compared the data," Kolk said.

The outstanding balances sold figure would be significantlyless, however, if the Allegacy sale had not taken place. At $65million, it was the largest credit union portfolio sale in overfive years, Kolk pointed out.

Kessler Financial Services, another card brokerage that isgenerally associated with purchases by Elan Financial Services,also agreed with Asset Exchange's numbers and pointed out that ithad brokered 46 out of the 65 deals that had been reported for2006. [email protected]