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Nebula Somewhat. Dun and Bradstreet was around since the mid 19th century, and they were the general source for listing businesses and individuals who had a need for credit.
Until the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. consumer credit was generally handled by businesses themselves. Like department stores and even grocery stores sold on credit and carried the debt, and in most cases the debt was carried through the whole distribution chain; like customers bought on credit from a local retailer who in turn bought on credit from local wholesalers, who in turn bought on credit from regional distributors , who bought on credit from the factories. Meanwhile, banking was mostly local and were a part of that long credit chain.
The great depression wiped out much of that credit chain, as did changes in banking laws, banking consolidation, and the premium that cash carried over credit and by the 1970s turned the retail distribution chain into a COD (cash on delivery) chain. But the blooming boomers had more need than cash so the surge in the credit-card industry to fill that gap.
