Introduction

When the Institute of Credit Management was first founded in 1939, it perhaps reflected the prejudices (and the actualities) of the time by being known as the Institute of Creditmen. Hardly had the fledgling organisation established itself than the Second World War intervened and matters as obtuse as the attempts to bring professionalism to credit management naturally receded into the background. It was 1946 before the relaunch, and by now, commonsense prevailed and the Institute of Credit Management banished prejudice and prewar notions for ever.