FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Encore Financial Services Cooperative, the credit union-owned financial services network for ATM/EFT services, shared branching and merchant services has become the newest player in the steadily percolating credit union credit card market. Encore has signed an agreement with T.K. Keith Company, a Wakefield, Massachusetts firm with some history of providing card services to credit unions to provide Encore credit unions with streamlined, cheaper, card issuing services through Encore Card Services. Keith is a member of the New England Bankcard Association and processes its card clients through Denver based First Data Resources. Encore decided to take the step of offering card services after surveying the market and deciding there was a niche to offer credit unions a more streamlined and cheaper card alternative, explained Shonari Michael Hale, Encore Sales and Marketing Manager. Ted Keith, CEO of T.K. Keith said that his firm can offer credit unions greater flexibility than many other card issuers in how they choose to structure their card programs, including the option to take significant parts of their program "in house" if they wished while still retaining easy access to their card transaction data. Keith said the firm had two credit union card clients previously but that they had moved to credit union owned card servicing organizations. He added that by helping Encore establish Encore Card Services the company hoped to re-start its business with credit unions. Encore has 114 credit unions that would be eligible for using Keith's services. Tom Reed, CEO of the Encore Cooperative said the Cooperative was encouraged in its Card Services effort by its previous success helping member credit unions streamline and get better pricing on their EFT and ATM network. Reed said that their experience with eFunds, their transaction processor, was strong enough that they would have gone with eFunds on credit cards, but that firm limited its business to EFT and ATM. "We have a lot of experience now helping our members get cooperative prices on the types of services that debit processing entails, and we thought we could probably do the same thing on the credit card side of the house," Reed said. Stan Linkous, Senior Vice President for Business Development for Encore Card Services, argued that the current card environment, where card issuers needed as much flexibility as possible combined with as narrow margins as possible, would be responsive to Encore's expertise. "I have had 25 years in this card business,' Linkous said, "and it's only gotten more complicated. What we are going to offer credit unions is a chance to structure their card back office services in the way that best suits their card strategies at a price which will help them keep their costs within margins," he said.