HARRISBURG, PA — In what may be a sign of the times, fourteen credit unions in Pennsylvania have signed up with a Pennsylvania Credit Union Association program which audits CU staff and volunteers' credit card accounts.

The service provides a quarterly audit on CU staff and volunteers' card accounts that determine that the account is in good standing, reviews and validates any payments, transactions and adjustments that were posted internally, and determine if critical changes have been made to the account.

Lori Plasic, supervisor for operations and training for the Association, said the PCUA set up the program, which has been running for about a month, after CUs asked for it.

“Credit unions could do this on their own but for a variety of reasons they are not doing it,” Plasic explained, adding that other audit firms generally do not have the access to the account necessary to run these sorts of checks. “The incidence of card fraud at CUs is very rare, but credit unions have still seen the need for reducing their vulnerability,” she added.