PORTLAND, Ore. — Almost as many credit unions that sold their card portfolios and entered into agent relationships with their buyers plan to get back into issuing again as a plan to renew their agent agreements, according to a survey of previous card portfolio sellers conducted by Asset Exchange.

The former CU card portfolio brokerage, which has morphed into a brokerage and card consulting firm ownership by Fidelity National Information Systems, surveyed 224 card portfolio sellers in 2006 and received responses from 23% of them. The firm surveyed the sellers who had not responded in 2006 again in the fourth quarter of 2007 and an additional 17% responded.

According to the survey, while 44% of sellers would recommend the firms that purchased and now own their former card portfolios, 42% said they would not and, of those, 28% expressed strong dissatisfaction with their partner, the firm said, adding that this data tracked with the previous survey data.