Household Realty Corporation history

In 1883 Mackey constructed a building in Minneapolis to house his prospering business and opened his first branch office, in St Paul.

By 1890 he had opened 13 branches in the Midwest and the East, and additional offices had sprouted in Chicago.

In 1896 a second Pittsburgh branch began another significant innovation--soliciting customers for new loans by mail.

By 1913, 25 states had adopted loan legislation limiting interest rates to 6 percent.

On Harbison's recommendation, Household was the first loan company to offer an interest rate below the legal limit, dropping its monthly rate to 2.5 percent in 1928.

The first was "Money Management for Households," in April 1931.

The credit freeze was lifted by June 1932, and HFC quickly returned to its pattern of growth despite lingering questions about the health of the economy.

By this time Mackey spent his time almost exclusively in Europe, so Leslie Harbison was the logical choice to become president, a post he held until he died in 1933.

Many commercial banks entered the personal loan business in 1934.

In 1943 several borrowers in New York, claiming ambiguities in loan contracts such that borrowers were not fully aware of their obligations, sued Household and won.

At the first conference in 1951, he held daily meetings for a month, tirelessly asking managers from across the country what they saw as company strengths and weaknesses.

Education Funds, Inc. was created in 1960 to offer help in paying college tuitions.

With the acquisition of Von's, the merchandising division's net sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time in 1969.

Gilbert Ellis became HFC's fifth president in 1972, and he promptly signed a joint venture agreement with J.P. Morgan & Company, a finance company that had long served wealthy individuals and large corporations.

In 1976 HFC acquired Keystone Savings and Loan in California and several commercial banks in Colorado.

In 1977 a New York Supreme Court judge charged that Household unethically solicited former, unpaid borrowers who had since been declared bankrupt.

Orbit became a profitable venture for Household when the company signed a five-year contract in May 1981 to provide services to the General Finance Corporation.

Household International also restructured its finance businesses in 1985 by forming Household Commercial Financial Services, consisting of four divisions: capital equipment and property financing; specialty products and services; real estate services; and business equipment financing and services.

In early 1988 Edwin P. Hoffman, a 19-year veteran of New York-based banking giant Citicorp, became president and chief operating officer at Household; Clark remained the company's chairman.

After a transition period, during which the heads of Household's three main units comprised an office of the president, Clark in late 1994 selected as chief executive an outsider, William F. Aldinger, who had been with Wells Fargo & Co.

The GM card proved to be an immense success, and by mid-1996 was the country's largest so-called affinity card with 12 million cardholders.