Ryan Zilker They have been around so long, it's easy to begin thinking of them as inert pieces of plastic. Yet, credit and debit cards remain among the most dynamic products credit unions can offer, and they in fact represent an opportunity to serve members at the leading edge.

Consider the growth in credit card spending during 2014. According to the company's analysis of credit transactions processed by CO-OP Financial Services, credit spend steadily increased throughout the year. In January 2014, the average spend per card was $363.08, and in January 2015 the average spend was up to $381.18, an increase of five% per card during comparable periods.

This combines with the continued strong transaction volumes for cards. CO-OP's own analysis of debit and credit transactions it processed found the combined total holding strong, even growing, from about 120 million transactions per month in December 2013/January 2014 to more than 140 million transactions in November 2014.

Credit and debit card use is as vibrant as ever, and new technology is adding to its luster, in the form of payment innovations, security innovations and data/analytics.

Payment innovations and security innovations, in fact, seem to be going hand-in-hand.

The introduction of Apple Pay last September brought the tokenization data security process to the forefront. In addition, the Oct. 1, 2015, “liability shift” for EMV is finally bringing this global standard to the U.S., where it will ultimately be the standard as well.

CO-OP believes tokenization and EMV together will provide even better security for the U.S. payment system. Think of EMV as the security for a plastic card in a card present transaction, and tokenization as the security for digital transactions, whether mobile, online or in-store.

So while the technologies are similar, they are designed for different use cases. Coupled together they will make it much more difficult for fraudsters and improve the security of all transactions. And global interoperability of EMV chip cards is still a key driver of adoption in the United States.

Apple Pay and other mobile products answer member needs for payments methods that are fast, brilliant and connected. But consumers in equal measure are demanding greater personalization. One answer are card controls and alerts, which enable the user to individually turn their cards on and off and set spending limits by category.

These innovations can be utilized to the maximum through the data analytics tools now at the ready. Credit unions certainly do not have unlimited resources to encourage low spenders and members who are slow to activate their cards.

Analytics tools provide credit unions with deep insight into their full portfolio's performance – right down to the transactions of an individual card, network, merchant and ATM. Armed with this data, you can better understand and influence cardholder behavior, and focus on members with the greatest potential through rewards programs and other targeted efforts.

There's no question that the credit and debit cards you issue are key drivers toward primary financial institution-relationships, and represent a large and consistent source of revenue.

Your members use cards to interact with you more than any other form of transaction, and the way you position your cards determines in large measure how you position your credit union.

With the advances available to you today in cards you can be seen as a technology leader, a secure and fun source of payment, an efficient and rewarding financial services provider, and – in a crisp phrase – first in class.

Ryan Zilker is the senior manager of market analysis for CO-OP Financial Services. He can be reached at 800-782-9042 Ext. 3482 or ryan.zilker@co-opfs.org.

Instant Insights /

Keeping Cards Leading Edge

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