WASHINGTON — This year may be remembered as the year that two groups of credit unions, CUSOs, associations and vendors got together to try to launch industrial loan corporations which, it was hoped, would purchase card portfolios and give CUs a way to participate in the credit card industry other than by issuing cards themselves.

In the end both efforts failed, though each left heirs that pledged to continue the effort until credit unions had other credit union-owned options for selling their card portfolios.

Each effort got underway with the notion of using an industrial loan corporation, or ILC, as a vehicle for the card purchases. These charters are something of a holdover from the past, nonbank corporations that are nonetheless able to perform some banking functions, such as making consumer loans. Currently there is no federal ILC charter, though different states, most notably Utah, have state ILC charters.