ARLINGTON, Va. — Improved CU credit card performance appears to be the trend, undercutting the market for CU card portfolios, according to analyses of NCUA first quarter 2008 data.

According to analyses performed by leading CU card portfolio brokers and consultants, only 10 credit union card portfolios worth roughly $60 million in aggregate moved to buyers in the first quarter of 2008. This is down 40% from the same quarter of 2007, which saw 17 CU card portfolios sell with balances worth roughly $107 million change hands, according to records kept by Asset Exchange, a noted card portfolio consultant and broker owned by Fidelity National Information Services.

While card portfolio consultants and analysts cautioned that three months worth of data alone cannot qualify as a trend, they acknowledged that the CU card portfolio picture from the first quarter of 2008 is almost a complete reversal of the same picture from 2003. Then, when CU card performance was struggling, CU card portfolio sales moved at a fast clip. Now, strong performance appears to have dampened card portfolio sales.