Storefront displays signs for both the BankAmericard ( Visa ) and Master Charge ( MasterCard ).
plans gained momentum . “ Credit Card Companies Are Enjoying a Fresh Surge of Healthy Growth ,” the business magazine Barron ’ s announced in a March 1964 headline . Incumbent firms , which the magazine divided along established lines of travel and entertainment cards for male executives and retail cards for city and suburban shoppers , had seen steady increases in cardholder spending . Card issuers had also expanded merchant and cardholder membership , while curtailing bad-debt losses . Newspapers and the business press touted the success of Bank of America ’ s BankAmericard plan as evidence that bank card plans had found solid ground .
In 1965 , several large regional banks debuted new card ventures , including Valley National Bank in Phoenix and Mellon National Bank in Pittsburgh . “ Alert banks ,” Mellon President John A . Mayer observed , “ realize that there have been major social changes in the United States . People who weren ’ t candidates to do business with banks now are .” Bankers were bullish . The cover of the December 1966 issue of Burroughs Clearing House , the magazine “ for Bank and Financial Officers ,” greeted readers with a picture of a red-cheeked Santa with bank and travel cards tumbling from his billfold . The industry , once skeptical of unsecured consumer lending , seemed ready to embrace card plans .
Bankers ’ hopeful vision for cards centered on automation , especially new computer technologies that promised to streamline labor-intensive credit account processing . As Mayer ’ s Mellon Bank reported in 1965 , “ A prime factor in making this service possible is the degree to which the Bank has developed the use of computer equipment , which is economically essential to the operation of a program of this magnitude .” California ’ s Crocker National likewise hailed the credit card as a “ development made possible by the use of electronic data-processing equipment .” And cards were just the start .
The banking press anticipated the imminent arrival of the “ cashless ” and “ checkless ” society ; they imagined futures of computerized payment systems that would lift the mountainous weight of processing paper cash and checks . Across the financial system , the steady growth of transactions — from stock purchases to check usage — placed enormous pressure on firms ’ accounting and processing capacities . Computers would , bankers believed , solve these back-office problems . They could also generate new lines of business .
18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2024 | www . MoAF . org