“ The trick is going to be to combine money and computers to create a whole new range of services ,” one observer wrote . Bank of America had pioneered commercial bank applications of computer technology with its ERMA checkprocessing system in the late 1950s . It developed the BankAmericard to utilize these systems as well . Major banks , seeking advantages in electronic scale , followed Bank of America ’ s lead .
The potential reach of computer technology remained limited , however , so long as bank cards operated in circumscribed geographic and product markets . As Barron ’ s highlighted , travel cards enjoyed a global reach , while retail cards were confined by federal restrictions on interstate bank branching : “ The largest [ retail credit plan ] is that of the Bank of America , which operates exclusively in California .” A few dozen other bank cards served smaller markets , limited to smaller states and individual cities . Geographic divisions mirrored the continued gender division among travel and retail plans . For travel cards , The New York Times reported , “ the average card holder is : male , married , earns between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 a year , travels frequently , and is a college graduate .”
To maintain their masculine exclusivity , travel firms policed the division between their cards and feminized retail markets . “ We believe women account for 95 % of the spending on the BankAmericard ,” Diners chairman Alfred Bloomingdale wrote in a letter published in Forbes in October 1966 , “ while men account for 95 % of the spending on the Diners Club card . We do not believe that the Bank of America is a competitor of the Diners Club . ” Bloomingdale wanted the gender divide to remain stark and explicit .
Bloomingdale may have accurately described card markets as they were when he wrote , but only because banks had just begun to merge gendered credit markets . Bank of America led the transformation . Initially , bank executives promoted regional card use within the rubric of female-led consumption . BankAmericard ads highlighted “ statewide shopping convenience ,” emphasizing that the card was “ the sound , modern plan for making the most of your family dollars .” BankAmericard ’ s early advertising seldom featured men ; when it did , the focus remained on family shopping . It was , after all , “ The Family Credit Card .”
Schematic illustration of consumer-merchant-bank connections fashioned by different bank credit card networks .
Karl A . Scheld , “ Bank Credit Cards : Saturation in the Midwest ?” Business Conditions ( June 1968 ): 14 . Reprinted with the permission of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago . www . MoAF . org | Summer 2024 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 19