Article

Last month Elan partnered with TRK Advisors for a webinar discussing current trends in credit card issuing, an in-depth product analysis, and shifts in the market over the last 18 months.

 “In 2020 and 2021, there was never a better time to be a credit card issuer, particularly a credit union credit card issuer. But now we’re in difficult territory,” shared Tim Kolk, president of TRK Advisors.

Here are eight steps credit union leaders can take to position their credit card program for success:

1. Maintain monthly, comprehensive product-level portfolio performance reporting.

2. Complete quarterly product benchmarking against your competitors.

3. Hold thorough reviews with your processing partner and brand twice, at minimum, per year.

4. Build an evergreen annual marketing plan around portfolio management and new account disciplines.

5. Build an annual card business plan integrating all of the marketing plan elements and profitability modeling going out several years.

6. Create a card manager development plan including annual goals for performance and skill enhancement.

7. Identify key dates for all related vendor agreements and build a schedule for renewal and renegotiation projects.

8. Offer card-specific staff education and advocacy training for new hires and ongoing training for current employees.

Access the full presentation on our website including data and graphs that may help with your benchmark analysis and watch the webinar recording here.