The Passing of a Credit Card Pioneer

In the early days in this country credit was seldom available to the average consumer. To the extent that it was available, it was typically secured. General Motors Acceptance Corporation was a pioneer in the automobile industry in the 1920's and greatly helped General Motors to increase its market share in relation to that of Ford. By the mid-1950s, a number of retailers did grant credit to favored customers, but had to bear the extra costs of administering the accounts and absorbing bad debts. Banks did not lend money to average consumers. Even those who were "creditworthy" typically had to fill out lengthy applications and find two co-signers.

An employee of the Franklin National Bank in Rockville Centre, NY dramatically changed the market for consumer credit in 1951. In that year, William J. Boyle developed the Franklin Charge Card program to handle credit and collections for local fuel oil dealers. By the end of the following year, the fledgling credit card program had grown to serve 750 merchants, 28,000 customers and generated annual charges running to $2.5 million. Boyle's model was to serve the two parties—merchants and consumers. On the one hand, the merchant got rid of the handling costs and credit losses and freed up funds for investment in inventory. On the other hand, the consumer had a single line of credit that could be used at a wide variety of retailers.

The Franklin National Bank licensed the program to the First National Bank of Kalamazoo in the latter part of 1952, and the rest, as they say, is history. William J. Boyle died on April 30 at the age of 88.