"About that time, Bank of America decided to leave the affinity card market, so it worked out," Jones said, adding that the credit union had to negotiate with the bank to buy the portfolio.

Bank of America wanted Eli Lilly to accede to the bank selling the portfolio to Elan Financial Services, the affinity card issuer which is a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, but Jones said Lilly wanted no part of an affinity agreement that was going to put one of its products in the hands of another large bank.

"We had just been hearing more and more about how large bank issuers had been treating their cardholders and decided we just didn't want to take any more of those sorts of risks with our brand," Jones explained.

Jones reported that the portfolio had not changed all that much during the decade it had been with Bank of America. It had consisted of about 6,800 cards when the credit union sold it in 2002 and was about 6,800 cards when Eli Lilly bought it back in 2012.

It had changed in a couple of ways, however. First, some MasterCard and American Express cards had crept into the portfolio as well, and all those accounts were became  Visa accounts during the conversion.

Second, Jones said Bank of America had also apparently ignored Visa's criteria for which cardholders were eligible to have a Signature card, the brand's luxury card platform. Usually, there were requirements for income and spending level that go with the platform, but, apparently, almost all of the Eli Lilly cardholders had Signature cards.

Jones said Lilly would not downgrade any of the existing Signature card holders but would begin to underwrite Signature card applications in accord with Visa standard on any going forward.

"We look forward to launching a platinum and other card platforms in the future," Jones said.

Jones said buying the card portfolio had been a challenge since it meant Eli Lilly would go from having no card program at all to having a $20 million portfolio overnight. But he added that the credit union had been training staff on card management and taking particular care to learn how to do it right and keep expenses down.

Among other things, Lilly had sent staff to credit union management schools, such as the one offered by Ondine Irving, founder and CEO of Card Analysis Solutions. Irving is a staunch advocate of credit unions issuing their own cards or, if they have to, partnering with a CUSO to issue. Irving reacted positively to the news that Eli Lilly was returning to card issuing.

"The fact that credit unions are returning to the card issuing business is music to my ears," Irving wrote in an email. "There have been numerous negative experiences from credit unions that outsourced their credit card programs in the past to banks, including member dissatisfaction. The credit union is doing the best thing for their members and the credit unions bottom line. It is great to see a credit union such as Eli Lilly realize this tremendous opportunity to better serve their members and maintaining control of the complete member relationship."