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PSCU Financial Services' five-year processing and services agreement with Corporate One Federal Credit Union will enable smaller credit unions to issue credit cards, an enterprise traditionally cost-prohibitive for them, says Merry Pateuk, a spokesperson for PSCU, a credit union service organization based in St. Petersburg, Fla. (CardLine, 6/12). Columbus, Ohio-based Corporate One will resell PSCU's credit, debit and ATM-processing services to its more than 800 credit-union members located in 40 states, says Paul Hixon, Corporate One vice president of marketing. PSCU will process participating credit unions' credit, debit and ATM transactions over the First Data Corp.'s Star electronic funds transfer network, Pateuk says. Corporate One had a processing relationship with Star, but it ended the agreement to work with PSCU, the company says. By doing so, Corporate One can take advantage of a much larger pricing-volume discount PSCU has with Star, Pateuk says. This agreement will enable small credit unions to issue credit cards and have the cards' transactions processed over PSCU's platform. Small credit unions on their own face many more financial hurdles issuing credit cards than with issuing debit cards, which are tied to checking accounts instead of lines of credit, Pateuk says. PSCU also offers full-time call-center and fraud-protection services, she says.
