Joseph P. Williams (February 2, 1915 – November 8, 2003) was the creator of the

BankAmericard Visa Inc. (; stylized as ''VISA'') is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded cred ...

, the first nationwide bank credit card, which later evolved into the

VISA Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

brand.

Early life

Williams was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and served as an infantry officer in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Martin, Douglas
"J.P. Williams, 88, Bank Card Creator, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', November 21, 2003. Accessed January 18, 2009.

Career

As an admirer of A.P. Giannini's aggressive banking approach at the

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

, he drove to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

after completing his military service and approached Giannini for a job at the bank.

Diners Club A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...

, the first major travel and entertainment

charge card A charge card is a type of credit card that enables the cardholder to make purchases which are paid for by the card issuer, to whom the cardholder becomes indebted. The cardholder is obligated to repay the debt to the card issuer in full by the ...

, had been introduced in 1950, and

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

and Carte Blanche followed in 1958, but all of these offerings had to have bills repaid in 30 days and were accepted by a limited number of vendors. By the mid-1950s, Williams was the senior vice president in charge of a group that had the unofficial task of creating the nation's first all-purpose credit card. Studying previous failures and analyzing the successes by

Sears, Roebuck and Company Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

in offering credit to their customers, the team led by Williams conceived of a set of features — an 18% interest rate applied after a 25-day

grace period A grace period is a period immediately after the deadline for an obligation during which a late fee, or other action that would have been taken as a result of failing to meet the deadline, is waived provided that the obligation is satisfied durin ...

credit limit A credit limit is the maximum amount of credit that a financial institution or other lender will extend to a debtor for a particular line of credit (sometimes called a credit line, line of credit, or a tradeline). This limit is based on a variety ...

s and

floor limit A floor limit is the amount of money above which debit card or credit card Financial transaction, transactions must be authorized online by their Issuing bank, Issuing banks. The limit can vary from store to store. Floor limits have become less s ...

s — that became the standards for the credit card industry since.Oliver, Myrna of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''
"J.P. Williams, who developed first bank credit card, dies at 88"
''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

'', November 30, 2003. Accessed January 18, 2009. In 1958 the bank sent 60,000 BankAmericard offers to residents of

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

, followed by

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

with two million more offers sent statewide in the subsequent 15 months, marking what was called by ''

'' as "the official dawn of the bank credit card". The cards had preapproved credit lines ranging from US$300 to US$500 and floor limits of US$25 to US$100. Resentment from merchants and customer delinquencies started almost immediately, and Williams left Bank of America two months before the bank's statewide rollout was complete. The bank lost almost US$9 million in just over a year after the cards were introduced. During the

1962 New York City newspaper strike Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...

, Williams published ''The New York Standard'', one of several alternative newspapers that were published during the 114-day strike that hit the city's major newspapers. He formed the Uni-Serve Corporation in 1962 and bought the credit card operations from

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...

for US$9 million, the value of the unit's unpaid billings. Uni-Serve was sold to American Express in 1965, with Williams remaining as president of the unit until 1966 and as the unit's chairman until 1968.

Death

Williams died at age 88 on November 8, 2003 at his home in

Atlantis, Florida Atlantis is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 2,142. Geography Atlantis is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which ...

References

External links

VISA USA

American Express
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joseph P. 1910s births 2003 deaths Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey American bankers United States Army personnel of World War II People from Palm Beach County, Florida United States Army officers University of Pennsylvania alumni 20th-century American businesspeople

Early life

Career

Death

See also

References

External links