BOCA RATON, Fla. — Too many credit union credit card programs suffer because they lack a dedicated manager or champion within the credit union, according to card consultants who spoke Monday at CO-OP Financial Services' THINK Conference.

Tim Kolk, founder of TK Advisers, a credit card consultancy that works with credit unions to improve their card programs, noted that too many of the card programs he sees are "legacy" programs, cards offered for some time that are often part of the shared responsibility of the lending department. The problem with this approach is that the programs often lack someone who has responsibility for the card portfolio, Kolk said.

"And when they have a person responsible for the program, they are often someone who specializes in operations, because that is part of the card legacy. But increasingly they need to be good analysts too who are able to read the data that makes up the core of card usage."