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Charge Account Banking: A Study of Financial Innovation in the 1950s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2018

SEAN H. VANATTA
SEAN H. VANATTA*
Affiliation:
Sean H. Vanatta is a PhD candidate in history at Princeton University. His dissertation research focuses on the business and regulatory history of the credit card industry in the postwar United States, examining how banks navigated a complex nexus of law and politics to construct the card market within the prevailing regulatory systems of the 1950s and 1960s, and then used cards to reshape those systems in the 1970s and 1980s. He is also the coauthor, with Peter Conti-Brown, of the forthcoming book, The Banker’s Thumb: The Institutional and Evolutionary History of Bank Supervision in the U.S., from the Civil War to the Global Financial Crisis (Harvard University Press). E-mail: svanatta@princeton.edu
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Abstract

This study takes a step toward reconceptualizing the process of financialization, the reorientation of the US economy toward financial services that scholars view as a product of the 1970s economic shocks and subsequent regulatory liberalization. Instead, I argue that financialization was equally dependent on the gradual development of new financial technologies and business practices within the political and regulatory environment of the early postwar era. I do so by examining a cohort of small U.S. banks, which in the early 1950s began experimenting with a novel form of consumer credit: the charge account credit service. These plans allowed consumers to shop at a variety of local merchants using a single bank charge card. Bankers, though, developed charge account plans not as a conduit for consumer lending but as a business service, which enabled their small-merchant customers to compete with the credit plans offered by expanding department stores. In this way, charge account banking conformed with the 1950s political economy of finance, in which commercial bankers primarily lent to businesses and were still wary of consumer credit. Although they operated differently than the credit cards consumers know today, charge account banking plans were still a necessary first step toward this later financial technology, paving the way for commercial bankers to invest in unsecured card-based credit in the decades that followed.

Type
Article
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 352 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2018. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Hyman, Louis. Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Krippner, Greta R. Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
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Markley, John R. “Charge Account Banking for an Atlanta Bank.” MA Thesis. Emory University, 1959.Google Scholar
McAndrews, James, and Wang, Zhu. “The Economics of Two-Sided Payment Card Markets: Pricing, Adoption and Usage.” WP 12–06, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper Series (September 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkins, Edwin. “The Divorce of Commercial and Investment Banking.” Banking Law Journal 88, no. 6 (June 1971): 483–528.Google Scholar
Rochet, Jean-Charles, and Tirole, Jean. “Two-Sided Markets: A Progress Report.” RAND Journal of Economics 37, no. 3 (Autumn 2006): 645–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rysman, Marc. “The Economics of Two-Sided Markets.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 23, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 125–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawyer, Laura Phillips. “California Fair Trade: Antitrust and the Politics of ‘Fairness’ in U.S. Competition Policy.” Business History Review 90, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townshend-Zellner, Norman. “The Bank-Charge-Account Plan and Retail Food Marketing.” Agricultural Economics Research 12, no. 4 (October 1, 1960): 85–104.Google Scholar
Vanatta, Sean H. “Citibank, Credit Cards, and the Local Politics of National Consumer Finance, 1968–1991.” Business History Review 90, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 57–80.Google Scholar
Vanatta, Sean H. “Making Credit Convenient: Credit Cards and the Political Economy of Modern America.” Ph.D. Dissertation (unpublished). Princeton University, 2018.Google Scholar
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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Consumer Installment Credit, Part 1, Vol. 1. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1957.Google Scholar
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Bank Credit-Card and Check-Credit Plans. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1968.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Consumer Credit Control: Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency. 80th Cong., 1st Sess., June 25 and July 2, 1947.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Shopping Centers–1959: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Select Committee on Small Business. 86 Cong., 1 Sess., April 28–29, 1959.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Consumer Credit Labeling Bill: Hearings before a Subcommittee on Banking and Currency 86 Cong., 2 Sess., March 23–24, April 5–7, April 20–21, May 6, 1960.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Review of the Commission on Money and Credit: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee 87 Cong., 1 Sess., August 14–18, 1961.Google Scholar
“A Bank’s Retail Charge Account Service.” Banking 44, no. 12 (June 1, 1952).Google Scholar
“A.B.A. Charge Plan Panel Urges Caution in Adopting Method; Warn of Dangers.” American Banker, March 26, 1953.Google Scholar
“Almost 1,000 New Stores Join Charge Account Bank Plans Since June 1954–Total Now 8,905.” American Banker, October 29, 1954.Google Scholar
“Bank Retail Charge Account Volume $986,098 for September, 1953.” American Banker October 30, 1953.Google Scholar
“Charge-Acct Bankers Form Association to Exchange Information; Elect Officers.” American Banker, March 23, 1954.Google Scholar
“Charge Account Volume 1st Quarter ’56 Up 36% to $9.17 Million from Year Ago.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
“Clothing Stores Lean ‘Handy-Charge’ Outlets For South Bend Bank.” American Banker, December 15, 1953.Google Scholar
“Current Legal and Regulatory Developments.” National Banking Review 3, no. 2 (December 1965).Google Scholar
“Denver Nat’l Adopts Retail Sale Charge Plan Service.” American Banker, July 6, 1953.Google Scholar
“‘Easy Charge’ Credit Plan Proving Profitable for Jersey Bank, Aiding Other Departments.” American Banker, September 27, 1956.Google Scholar
“Five Charge Account Banks Earn Net Rate of 10%; 11 Reach 6%, Among 35 Making Quarterly Report.” American Banker, November 27, 1957.Google Scholar
“Florida National Starts Charge Account Plan, Careful Preparation Features Bank Operation.” American Banker, December 27, 1957.Google Scholar
“FNB Boston Launches Check-Credit Plan: Personal Credit Via Punch-Card Checks.” American Banker, February 15, 1955.Google Scholar
“Over $4.4 Million Outstanding in Charge Account Banking at Year End.” American Banker, January 28, 1954.Google Scholar
“Second Correspondent Charge Account Plan Successful, First NB&T, Kalamazoo, States.” American Banker, May 1, 1959.Google Scholar
“Three Banks Introducing Charge-Plate Accounts for Chicago Merchants.” American Banker, January 20, 1953.Google Scholar
Bontems, Edward E. “The Story of Interbank.” Bankers Monthly, July 15, 1968.Google Scholar
Corder, R. H. “600 Merchants in Charge Account Plan Served by First National Bank of Omaha.” American Banker, January 27, 1960.Google Scholar
Crowder, L. S. “Bank and Central Charge Plans.” Credit World 41, no. 12 (September 1953).Google Scholar
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Fuller, Kenneth C. “A Bank’s ‘Charg-It’ Plan for Merchants.” Burroughs Clearing House, November 1950.Google Scholar
Gilliland, J. C. “Bank Charge Account Plans.” Credit World 42, no. 2 (November 1953).Google Scholar
Groover, Charles E. “Citizens Commercial, Flint, Mich., Offers New Service To Correspondent Banks; Based on Charge Account Banking.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
Heimann, Henry H. “Sound Credit: Our First Line of Defense.” Credit World 39, no. 11 (August 1951).Google Scholar
Hopper, David. “Key to Success—Training Merchants.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Hughes, Syd J. “Credit under Regimentation.” Credit World 39, no. 6 (March 1951).Google Scholar
Landrain, Charles H. “Charge Accounts Offer Banks Chance to Provide Valuable Service, Landrain Informs Conference.” American Banker, June 16, 1959.Google Scholar
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Lorenz, Otto C. “5 More Banks Enter Charge Account Profit Column.” American Banker, August 25, 1959.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “21 Charge Account Bankers Show Profits for 3rd Quarter—Only Nine Were Out of Red Year Ago.” American Banker, November 30, 1955.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Bank Retail Charge Account Service Volume $726,098 for May, ’53.” American Banker, June 19, 1953.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Charge Account Bankers Announce Gains for 2nd Quarter; Nine Banks Earn Yields Over 10% p. a. After All Expenses.” American Banker, August 21, 1958.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Charge Account Bankers Create Surplus Demand Deposits in Tight Money Market.” American Banker, June 26, 1957.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Credit Engineering—For Bank Examiners.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “From the Consumer Credit Desk: Charge Account Bankers Show Great Improvement.” American Banker, April 28, 1955.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Past Lessons in Charge Account Banking Show Pitfalls Which Must Be Avoided If Full-Scale Operation Is to Succeed; Five Steps for Success.” American Banker, November 20, 1958.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Want More Persons to Use Bank Services? Charge Account Banking Woos Customers.” American Banker, November 27, 1956.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Wham! … In the Gold with Charge Account Banking.” American Banker, February 26, 1957.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Will Revolving Check-Credit Vie with Charge-Account Banking?” American Banker, January 26, 1959.Google Scholar
Madsen, Dean J. “The Charge Account Road to Bank Growth.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Mead, Clarence. “Credit Cards on Main Street.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1966.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Robert L. “Charge Account Operations Successful in Miami, Customer Demand Spreads Service to New Merchants.” American Banker, July 24, 1956.Google Scholar
Toole, G. L. “Community Service with Reciprocal Benefits.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Toole, G. L. “Development and Progress of A Bank Charge Account Service: Part I.” American Banker, April 28, 1955.Google Scholar
Toole, G. L. “Development and Progress of a Bank Charge Account Service: Part II.” American Banker, May 16, 1955.Google Scholar
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Calomiris, Charles W., and Haber, Stephen H.. Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
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Cooper, Kerry, and Fraser, Donald R.. Banking Deregulation and the New Competition in Financial Services. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1984.Google Scholar
Curran, Barbara A. Trends in Consumer Credit Legislation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Hock, Dee W. One From Many: VISA and the Rise of the Chaordic Organization. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2005.Google Scholar
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Howard, Vicki. From Main Street to the Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Hyman, Louis. Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Krippner, Greta R. Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Kovaleff, Theodore Philip. Business and Government during the Eisenhower Administration: A Study of the Antitrust Policy of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Levinson, Marc. The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2011.Google Scholar
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Mandell, Lewis. The Credit Card Industry: A History. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.Google Scholar
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.Google Scholar
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Schulman, Bruce J. The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics. New York: Free Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Stearns, David L. Electronic Value Exchange: Origins of the VISA Electronic Payment System. New York: Springer, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Judith. Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Wolfson, Martin. Financial Crises: Understanding the Postwar U.S. Experience, 2nd ed. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994.Google Scholar
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Bátiz-Lazo, Bernardo, and Del Angel, Gustavo A.. “The Dawn of the Plastic Jungle: The Introduction of the Credit Card in Europe and North America, 1950–1975.” Hoover Institution Economics Working Papers, No. 16107, March 2016.Google Scholar
Cohen, Lizabeth. “From Town Center to Shopping Center: The Reconfiguration of Community Marketplaces in Postwar America.” American Historical Review 101, no. 4 (October 1, 1996): 1050–1081.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Herrman, William Henry. “Charge Account Banking.” MA Thesis. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1960.Google Scholar
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Maffly, Donald H., and McDonald, Alex C.. “The Tripartite Credit Card Transaction: A Legal Infant.” California Law Review 48, no. 3 (August 1,1960): 459–500.Google Scholar
Markley, John R. “Charge Account Banking for an Atlanta Bank.” MA Thesis. Emory University, 1959.Google Scholar
McAndrews, James, and Wang, Zhu. “The Economics of Two-Sided Payment Card Markets: Pricing, Adoption and Usage.” WP 12–06, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper Series (September 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkins, Edwin. “The Divorce of Commercial and Investment Banking.” Banking Law Journal 88, no. 6 (June 1971): 483–528.Google Scholar
Rochet, Jean-Charles, and Tirole, Jean. “Two-Sided Markets: A Progress Report.” RAND Journal of Economics 37, no. 3 (Autumn 2006): 645–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rysman, Marc. “The Economics of Two-Sided Markets.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 23, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 125–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawyer, Laura Phillips. “California Fair Trade: Antitrust and the Politics of ‘Fairness’ in U.S. Competition Policy.” Business History Review 90, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townshend-Zellner, Norman. “The Bank-Charge-Account Plan and Retail Food Marketing.” Agricultural Economics Research 12, no. 4 (October 1, 1960): 85–104.Google Scholar
Vanatta, Sean H. “Citibank, Credit Cards, and the Local Politics of National Consumer Finance, 1968–1991.” Business History Review 90, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 57–80.Google Scholar
Vanatta, Sean H. “Making Credit Convenient: Credit Cards and the Political Economy of Modern America.” Ph.D. Dissertation (unpublished). Princeton University, 2018.Google Scholar
Wolters, Timothy. “‘Carry Your Credit in Your Pocket’: The Early History of the Credit Card at Bank of America and Chase Manhattan.” Enterprise & Society 1, no. 2 (June 2000): 322–324.Google Scholar
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Consumer Installment Credit, Part 1, Vol. 1. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1957.Google Scholar
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Bank Credit-Card and Check-Credit Plans. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1968.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Consumer Credit Control: Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency. 80th Cong., 1st Sess., June 25 and July 2, 1947.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Shopping Centers–1959: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Select Committee on Small Business. 86 Cong., 1 Sess., April 28–29, 1959.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Consumer Credit Labeling Bill: Hearings before a Subcommittee on Banking and Currency 86 Cong., 2 Sess., March 23–24, April 5–7, April 20–21, May 6, 1960.Google Scholar
United States Senate. Review of the Commission on Money and Credit: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee 87 Cong., 1 Sess., August 14–18, 1961.Google Scholar
“A Bank’s Retail Charge Account Service.” Banking 44, no. 12 (June 1, 1952).Google Scholar
“A.B.A. Charge Plan Panel Urges Caution in Adopting Method; Warn of Dangers.” American Banker, March 26, 1953.Google Scholar
“Almost 1,000 New Stores Join Charge Account Bank Plans Since June 1954–Total Now 8,905.” American Banker, October 29, 1954.Google Scholar
“Bank Retail Charge Account Volume $986,098 for September, 1953.” American Banker October 30, 1953.Google Scholar
“Charge-Acct Bankers Form Association to Exchange Information; Elect Officers.” American Banker, March 23, 1954.Google Scholar
“Charge Account Volume 1st Quarter ’56 Up 36% to $9.17 Million from Year Ago.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
“Clothing Stores Lean ‘Handy-Charge’ Outlets For South Bend Bank.” American Banker, December 15, 1953.Google Scholar
“Current Legal and Regulatory Developments.” National Banking Review 3, no. 2 (December 1965).Google Scholar
“Denver Nat’l Adopts Retail Sale Charge Plan Service.” American Banker, July 6, 1953.Google Scholar
“‘Easy Charge’ Credit Plan Proving Profitable for Jersey Bank, Aiding Other Departments.” American Banker, September 27, 1956.Google Scholar
“Five Charge Account Banks Earn Net Rate of 10%; 11 Reach 6%, Among 35 Making Quarterly Report.” American Banker, November 27, 1957.Google Scholar
“Florida National Starts Charge Account Plan, Careful Preparation Features Bank Operation.” American Banker, December 27, 1957.Google Scholar
“FNB Boston Launches Check-Credit Plan: Personal Credit Via Punch-Card Checks.” American Banker, February 15, 1955.Google Scholar
“Over $4.4 Million Outstanding in Charge Account Banking at Year End.” American Banker, January 28, 1954.Google Scholar
“Second Correspondent Charge Account Plan Successful, First NB&T, Kalamazoo, States.” American Banker, May 1, 1959.Google Scholar
“Three Banks Introducing Charge-Plate Accounts for Chicago Merchants.” American Banker, January 20, 1953.Google Scholar
Bontems, Edward E. “The Story of Interbank.” Bankers Monthly, July 15, 1968.Google Scholar
Corder, R. H. “600 Merchants in Charge Account Plan Served by First National Bank of Omaha.” American Banker, January 27, 1960.Google Scholar
Crowder, L. S. “Bank and Central Charge Plans.” Credit World 41, no. 12 (September 1953).Google Scholar
Donohue, Edward M. “Charge Account Financing by Banks.” Bulletin of the Robert Morris Associates 35, no. 10 (June 1953).Google Scholar
Fuller, Kenneth C. “A Bank’s ‘Charg-It’ Plan for Merchants.” Burroughs Clearing House, November 1950.Google Scholar
Gilliland, J. C. “Bank Charge Account Plans.” Credit World 42, no. 2 (November 1953).Google Scholar
Groover, Charles E. “Citizens Commercial, Flint, Mich., Offers New Service To Correspondent Banks; Based on Charge Account Banking.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
Heimann, Henry H. “Sound Credit: Our First Line of Defense.” Credit World 39, no. 11 (August 1951).Google Scholar
Hopper, David. “Key to Success—Training Merchants.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Hughes, Syd J. “Credit under Regimentation.” Credit World 39, no. 6 (March 1951).Google Scholar
Landrain, Charles H. “Charge Accounts Offer Banks Chance to Provide Valuable Service, Landrain Informs Conference.” American Banker, June 16, 1959.Google Scholar
Landrain, Charles H. “Getting Started and Building Momentum.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “5 More Banks Enter Charge Account Profit Column.” American Banker, August 25, 1959.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “21 Charge Account Bankers Show Profits for 3rd Quarter—Only Nine Were Out of Red Year Ago.” American Banker, November 30, 1955.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Bank Retail Charge Account Service Volume $726,098 for May, ’53.” American Banker, June 19, 1953.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Charge Account Bankers Announce Gains for 2nd Quarter; Nine Banks Earn Yields Over 10% p. a. After All Expenses.” American Banker, August 21, 1958.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Charge Account Bankers Create Surplus Demand Deposits in Tight Money Market.” American Banker, June 26, 1957.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Credit Engineering—For Bank Examiners.” American Banker, May 29, 1956.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “From the Consumer Credit Desk: Charge Account Bankers Show Great Improvement.” American Banker, April 28, 1955.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Past Lessons in Charge Account Banking Show Pitfalls Which Must Be Avoided If Full-Scale Operation Is to Succeed; Five Steps for Success.” American Banker, November 20, 1958.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Want More Persons to Use Bank Services? Charge Account Banking Woos Customers.” American Banker, November 27, 1956.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Wham! … In the Gold with Charge Account Banking.” American Banker, February 26, 1957.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Otto C. “Will Revolving Check-Credit Vie with Charge-Account Banking?” American Banker, January 26, 1959.Google Scholar
Madsen, Dean J. “The Charge Account Road to Bank Growth.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Mead, Clarence. “Credit Cards on Main Street.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1966.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Robert L. “Charge Account Operations Successful in Miami, Customer Demand Spreads Service to New Merchants.” American Banker, July 24, 1956.Google Scholar
Toole, G. L. “Community Service with Reciprocal Benefits.” Financial Public Relations Association Yearbook, 1958.Google Scholar
Toole, G. L. “Development and Progress of A Bank Charge Account Service: Part I.” American Banker, April 28, 1955.Google Scholar
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