PORTLAND , Ore. , May 26, 2006 – AssetExchange, the leading independent credit card portfolio advisory and brokerage firm, has analyzed credit union credit card portfolio trends for the 1st quarter of 2006.

For the roughly 2,070 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, declined slightly, falling from 18.1% in March 2005 to 18.0% in March 2006.
• Total card assets for portfolios over $1 million increased from $20.9 billion in March 2005 to $22.9 billion in March 2006. This represents an annual growth of 4.2% in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Total card assets for portfolios over $1 million increased slightly as a percentage of total assets, increasing from 3.96% in March 2005 to 4.06 in March 2006.
• The percentage of portfolios that grew more than the rate of inflation during the previous 12 months increased from 28% in March 2006 to 32% in March 2006.
• Approximately 13 credit unions with credit card portfolios larger than $1 million sold their portfolios during the first quarter of 2006, with a combined dollar volume of roughly $97.5 million.

Data provided in this press release is 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.