Overview.
The financial panic of 1893 created a disastrous depression and subsequently severe deflation, both of which stunned businesses. The chemistry of credit was not understood and commercial failures reached record numbers. So serious was the problem that a “Congress of Credit, Collections and Failures” was held as part of the 1893 Great Exposition in Chicago. That meeting, in turn, led to further exploration of the ways that credit practitioners could help each other.
In June of 1896, 82 delegates from several local credit groups met in Toledo to endorse a national movement, creating what is now the National Association of Credit Management. Membership has grown from 600 at the end of 1896, to more than 15,000 today, making NACM one of the oldest and largest business credit organizations in the United States.
NACM is committed to enhancing, promoting and protecting the many credit management interests of the commercial credit grantor. NACM represents business credit grantors in all industries including manufacturing, wholesaling, service industries and financial institutions. NACM is a member-owned association and exists solely to serve and support its members.
Minutes from First Annual Convention in
Toledo, Ohio on June 23-25, 1896
Our Mission
The purposes and objectives of NACM are to:
- promote honesty and integrity in credit transactions;
- assure equitable laws for sound credit practices;
- foster and facilitate the exchange of credit information;
- encourage efficient service in the collection of accounts;
- provide credit education NACM
- promote and expedite sound credit administration in international trade;
- foster and encourage research in the field of credit;
- disseminate useful and instructive information and ideas with respect to credit management techniques and policies;
- provide facilities for the investigation and prevention of fraud; and
- perform and encourage such other functions as the advancement and protection of business credit may require.
