Industrial Loan Company - Origins of The Concept

Origins of The Concept

In 1910, attorney Arthur J. Morris (1881-1973) opened the Fidelity Savings and Trust Company in Norfolk, Virginia, which made small loans to working people under a concept he called "Morris Plan."

Under this lending approach, would-be borrowers had to submit references from two people of like character and earnings power to guarantee the borrower's creditworthiness, and agreed to repay the loan through the purchase of Installment Thrift Certificates in weekly installments equal to the face value of the loan, less origination and investigative fees.

Morris Plan pioneered the use of automotive financing (through arrangements between the Morris Plan Company of America, essentially a holding company for Morris Plan banks, and the Studebaker Corporation) and, through the subsidiary Morris Plan Insurance Society, credit life insurance (as allowed for the loan to be repaid in case the borrower died during the term of the loan, with any residue going to the estate).

Read more about this topic:  Industrial Loan Company

Famous quotes containing the words origins of, origins and/or concept:

    “Grown onto every inch of plate, except
    Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
    Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
    Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
    The origins of art.”
    —Howard Moss (b. 1922)

    “Lucretius
    Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
    smiling carves dreams, bright cells
    Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
    —Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    “the full analysis of the notions of saying something and understanding what one said inevitably involves a concept which, as I will show in detail, essentially corresponds to the Cartesian idea of thought.”
    —Zeno Vendler (b. 1921)