Bankcard - History

History

Before Bankcard, the relatively small population of Australia, coupled with its vast geographical spread made a credit card system cost prohibitive for any single Australian bank. In the early 1970s a number of banks combined to seek approval from the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Federal Treasury to commence a credit card scheme in the Australian financial market. Approval was granted in 1972. The banks formed a company, Charge Card Services Limited, to manage Bankcard and process credit card transactions. Each member bank issued its own variant the Bankcard card and each established its own credit rules and maintained direct customer relations with its own cardholders. Bankcard was officially launched in October 1974 by then Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam.

A significant marketing campaign followed the card's launch. This included what was then the biggest direct mail marketing campaign in Australia to date. Among other things, banks posted a card with a A$300 credit limit to potential clients, following analysis of their accounts. In 1974, David Jones became the first major retailing organisation to accept Bankcard and by 1976 the card was accepted by almost every Australian department chain. Within 18 months of the card's issue, there were more than one million cardholders, representing more than 6% of the Australian population. 1983 saw the expansion of Bankcard to New Zealand. By 1984, there were more than five million cardholders in Australia and New Zealand.

In 1986 there was a dispute between the banks as to whether Bankcard would be included in the then new electronic banking EFTPOS system. At the time, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank were heavily promoting MasterCard and providing only minimal support to the Bankcards they issued, while the National Australia Bank, ANZ and state banks all supported Bankcard. The banks came to an accord whereby magnetic strips would be placed on all Bankcards, allowing them to be used in the EFTPOS system.