MADISON, Wis. — Credit unions that issue credit and debit cards should continue to do so even though fraud losses might have bitten into their program's profit margins and hiked insurance premiums, CUNA Mutual Group has emphasized.

The insurer covers the vast majority of CU plastic card programs and some credit unions that have sold their card portfolios have cited increased insurance premiums and deductibles for some of the reasons they have sold. In response, the insurer has said that card program and retention do not depend on any one factor, such as a fraud loss or insurance rates, but has generally not explicitly urged CUs to keep their card programs going.

Two speakers at the insurer's recent Discovery Conference, Lisa Brandt from CUNA Mutual and Kent Ailes from the $1.7 billion Arizona Federal Credit Union, sought to reassure CU executives that cards should remain part of their CU's portfolio of products and services and that the losses need to be kept in perspective.