RIVERWOOD, Ill. - Discover Financial Services, the parent of the PULSE EFT network, has signed an agreement with Citigroup to acquire venerable Diners Club International, one of the first credit card brands, for $165 million, the companies announced.
As a result of the deal, Discover will integrate the Diners Club International network with its own business to enable Discover cardholders to use their cards at merchants that accept Diners Club.
Diners Club cardholders, in turn, will be able to use their cards on the Discover Network at locations throughout the United States and Canada.
Diners Club tallies about $30 billion in annual spending volume–the total dollar amount of transactions processed on its cards–with a network that consists of more than 8 million cash access and incremental merchant locations in 186 countries.
Although several local American banks–including Brooklyn-based Flatbush National Bank and the Paterson Savings Trust Co.–had experimented with local “charge-it” programs as early as 1947, Diners Club was the first to market credit cards on a large scale. The company introduced history’s first credit card in 1950 as a way for 200 customers to pay their bills at 27 restaurants in and around New York City. That customer base expanded to 20,000 by the end of 1951.
