Pennsylvania's largest credit union going with PSCU Financial

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The $1.9 billion Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, the largest in the state, has agreed to have PSCU Financial Services process its credit and debit card transactions. The 272,000-member credit union, based in Harrisburg, PA., has more than 110,000 credit card accounts and 116,000 debit card accounts, PSCU said. “It has always been our priority to offer credit unions superior service and the most innovative products,” said Chris Leggett, director, national sales, PSCU Financial Services. “We are proud that Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union looked to us to provide them with the specialized solutions and operational expertise needed to add to the success of their card programs.” This new relationship is also an important marketplace validation of our new pricing methodology, he added. The new pricing is, as far as he knew, unique in the industry and involved a change from having a three-tiered price structure to only one, very flexible tier, Leggett said. Previously, the firm had a full-service pricing tier, a flexible-service tier and a no service tier; now it would only have one. As the names suggest, credit unions that opted for the full-service tier paid a price based on the notion that they were going to use all of PSCU’s services. Firms that opted for flexible service would pay for some of the services and credit unions that only wanted their card transactions processed would pay the no service rate. As of January 1, the entire firm will move to a pricing structure that closely resembles the previous flexible service pricing, an a la carte approach where credit unions would only pay for the PSCU services they use. It was that approach that helped make the firm attractive to the Pennsylvania State Employees, Leggett said. Greg Smith, president/chief executive officer, Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, also expected the processing move would be good for the institution’s portfolio. “PSCU Financial Services’ CURewards is one of several solutions we are interested in taking advantage of as we move towards enhancing the value of our card products. They have already shown us how we could add nearly $2 million in net revenue each year with such a program.” Smith said the credit union had not yet decided which reward option to apply to its current Classic card, or whether to offer other types of cards, like Gold or Platinum. He said the credit union would look to PSCU for advice on both options, acknowledging that offering more cards is one way a credit union can keep its card selection more competitive in the contemporary card market. [email protected]