PORTLAND , Ore. , May 23, 2005 – AssetExchange, the leading credit card portfolio brokerage firm, has compiled data about credit union credit card portfolio trends for the first quarter of 2005.

For the roughly 2,100 credit unions with credit card portfolios of $1 million and larger:

• Penetration, or the percentage of credit union members that have credit union credit cards, continued to decline, falling from 18.8% in March 2004 to 18.1% in March 2005.
• Total card assets for portfolios over $1 million increased from $20.1 billion in March 2004 to $20.9 billion in March 2005. This is less than 1% growth in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Total card assets for portfolios over $1 million continued their decline as a percentage of total assets, falling from 4.00% in March 2004 to 3.96% in March 2005.
• The percentage of portfolios that grew more than the rate of inflation during the previous 12 months fell from 46% in March 2004 to 44% in March 2005. Thus 56% of portfolios shrunk in real dollar terms during the 12 months ending in March 2005. (This is occurring even as total card assets edge upward because growth among a minority of larger portfolios is offsetting shrinkage among many smaller portfolios.)
• Approximately 21 credit unions larger than $1 million sold their credit card portfolios during the first quarter of 2005, with a combined volume of roughly $144 million. This represents a 17% increase in portfolio sales and a 14% increase in volume over the first quarter of 2004.

Values provided in the charts (left) and in the data reported are for credit card portfolios larger than $1 million in each time period and are based on NCUA call report data. Inflation values are from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.