PORTLAND , Ore. , November 22, 2006 – AssetExchange, the leading independent credit card portfolio advisory and brokerage firm, has analyzed credit union credit card portfolio trends for the 3rd quarter of 2006.

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

• The number of credit card accounts has remained relatively flat since September 2005 while CU membership grew less than 1%. This results in a slight decline in penetration, dropping from 18.1% of members in September 2005 to 18.0% in September 2006.
• Average balance per account is about $2,100. Total card assets increased from $22.0 billion in September 2005 to $24.2 billion in September 2006, a 7.8% increase in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• Total card assets rose slightly as a percentage of total credit union assets, increasing from 4.09% in September 2005 to 4.34% in September 2006.
• The percentage of portfolios that grew faster than inflation during the past year was 60%, which is an improvement over the previous year, when 51% achieved real growth.
• A preliminary assessment of the data indicates that approximately 19 credit unions with credit card portfolios larger than $1 million sold their portfolios during the third quarter of 2006, with a combined dollar volume of roughly $135 million.

Data provided in this press release is for credit card portfolios larger than $1 million in each time period and is based on NCUA call report data. Inflation values are from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (2.06% between September 2005 and September 2006).