SAN JOSE, Calif. — The $389 million Alliance Credit Union has become the latest CU to have announced a return to credit card issuing.

The CU sold its then roughly $18 million card portfolio consisting of roughly 7,500 card accounts to MBNA which has since merged with Bank of America. The CU has chosen PSCU Financial Services as an issuing partner for its new card offering.

According to Emily Condon, an Alliance representative, the CU sold the portfolio in 2002 because it was trying to process it and administer it entirely in house and felt it lacked the resources to keep it at profitability.

But Condon reported that over time the CU realized it had miscalculated member reaction to the portfolio sale and that its members had gotten used to a degree of customer service from the CU that was not possible with an outsourced partner. She also explained that Bank of America holding the portfolio had also played into the CU's decision to return to issuing.

Alliance is testing its new card and expects to begin offering it to members around the beginning of 2008.