The timeline below represents the history of this business until it became a part of the Citigroup family.   Associates First Capital Corporation's (The Associates) history began in 1918 when E.M. Morris built the foundations of the company on car and real-estate loans in the midwest U.S..   1918 With $100,000 in capital to finance Ford "Model T" motor cars, E.M. Morris founds Associates Investment Company in South Bend, Indiana.   1925 Enters the real-estate loan business through affiliate Morris Finance.   1926 Becomes the first finance company to list on the Chicago Stock Exchange.   1930s In the midst of the Depression, enters the full-service insurance business by buying EMMCO Insurance.   The Associates is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1937.   1951 The Associates becomes the first finance company to offer credit life insurance.   1960 The company’s new logo, the Triangle A, is introduced.   1968 The Associates is acquired by Gulf+Western Industries, Inc., an entertainment, publishing and manufacturing conglomerate, founded in 1956.   1971 Associates First National Corporation is organized.   1972 The company changes its name to Associates First Capital Corporation.   1975 Reece A. Overcash Jr. is named president and chief operating officer.   Commercial Discount Corporation is purchased and commercial headquarters are relocated to Chicago, Illinois. Year-end operating income is $37.1 million and receivables are at $1.8 billion.   1976 The new corporate headquarters opens in Dallas, Texas.   1977 Commercial finance surpasses $1 billion in net receivables.   Insurance operations complete the move to Dallas.   1978 Execu-Charge/Visa credit card program is inaugurated. Operating income increases to $74.6 million and receivables are $2.7 billion.   1979 Overcash adds chairman’s title to the chief executive officer title he assumed in 1978.   The company expands into international markets as consumer operations are established in Japan and the United Kingdom.   1980 The acquisition of its first "non-bank bank," Fidelity National Bank, is completed and credit card operations are moved to the bank's headquarters in Concord, California. Renamed Associates National Bank in 1982, the bank was liquidated circa 1992.   1982 Chrysler Financial Corporation is extended a $200 million revolving loan agreement.   1983 Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s upgrade Associates’ senior and subordinated debt securities. Receivables exceed $5 billion for the first time.   1984 The Associates becomes the third-largest independent finance company in the U.S.   It continues to expand its list of services by adding Kayser Leasing and new Japanese offices. Mortgage banking operations are also established.   The Associates achieves its best year ever, with operating income of $234 million, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. Receivables exceed $6 billion.   1985 Stockholders' equity surpasses $1 billion. Standard and Poor’s and other rating agencies upgrade The Associates’ senior and subordinated debt and commercial paper.   1986 Japan operations double in size. Moody’s and Duff & Phelps upgrade The Associates’ senior debt.   1987 The Associates acquires Fruehauf Finance Company, which solidifies its leadership in truck and truck-trailer financing, and Canada Permanent Funding, the U.K.'s second largest second-mortgage lender.   Assets exceed $10 billion and credit card receivables top $1 billion.   1988 Great Dane Finance Company, a truck-trailer financing company, is acquired.   1989 The Associates relocates its commercial-lending subsidiary headquarters from Chicago to Dallas.   Assets surpass $15 billion.   On October 29, Paramount Communications Inc. (the name Gulf+Western Industries, Inc. assumed in 1989) sells The Associates to Ford Motor Company for $3.35 billion, the largest acquisition in Ford's history. The Associates becomes part of the Ford Financial Services group, one of the largest financial operations in the world. Ford was founded by Henry Ford in 1899 as Detroit Automobile Co.   TranSouth Financial becomes part of The Associates.   Operating income reaches $508.6 million while receivables are $13.6 billion at year-end.   1990 First full year under Ford results in 14th consecutive year of record earnings. Ford Consumer Finance becomes part of the consumer branch network, adding more than $2 billion in receivables.   Mellon Financial Services is acquired, adding 96 offices to the consumer branch network.   Associates Insurance Group signs up its 1,000th fleet insurance customer.   1991 The company reports its 15th consecutive year of record earnings. Acquisitions include Kentucky Finance Company, Clark Credit Corporation, ECC Financial and the waste equipment division of Circle Business Credit.   The Ford MasterCard/Visa card is introduced.   Associates National Bank (Delaware) is established. U.S. assets exceed $21.5 billion and managed foreign assets are $2.2 billion at year-end.   Keith W. Hughes is named president and chief operating officer.   1992 First Family Financial Services and Signal Financial Corporation are added to consumer branch operations.   Credit card operations introduce a new MasterCard for subsidiaries of GTE Corporation and a deposit-secured bank card for Western Union.   Acquisition of TransNational Leasing, Inc. adds about 7,000 vehicles to the auto fleet-leasing division.   1993 75th Anniversary of The Associates.   Expansion of consumer finance operation continues with the acquisition of Allied Finance Company.   Credit card growth includes acquisition of a 178,000-account portfolio from Great Western Financial Corporation and a new agreement with Unocal Corporation to offer Visa and MasterCard to its customers.   Number one position as leading source of financing for heavy-duty trucks and truck trailers is solidified by the acquisition of Mack Trucks’ financing arm.   1994 The Associates reports 20 consecutive years of increased earnings.   Growth of commercial lending operation continues with launch of TransCapital Services to provide working capital financing and receivables management for transportation clients.   Acquisition of Michigan National Corp.’s warehouse mortgage operation and further expansion into Canada also add growth.   Initial licenses in Mexico are obtained.   Amoco Oil Company's credit card portfolio is acquired, providing entry to the private-label oil credit card market and adding approximately eight million new accounts. Associates adds ATM functionality to Amoco oil card, the first ever private-label card with ATM access.   1995 Keith W. Hughes is named chairman and chief executive officer on February 1, following the death of Reece A. Overcash Jr.   The Associates reports 21 consecutive years of increased earnings.   International expansion marks the year, with consumer and commercial operations established in Mexico.   The company enters the consumer lending market in Canada and the commercial lending market in the United Kingdom.   The Japan operations, AIC Corporation, grow to more than 300 branches and $2 billion in receivables.   1996 The Associates completes the successful initial public offering of 19.3 percent of Class A common stock, raising $1.9 billion from the sale of 69,000 shares. It becomes the largest publicly traded finance company in the nation. Ford Motor Company continues as majority shareholder (80 percent).   The company acquires Fleetwood Credit Corporation, a financing source for recreational vehicles; certain consumer finance assets of Fleet Financial Corporation; U.S. Fleet Leasing, one of the nation’s largest motor vehicle management and leasing companies; and Teletech Financial Corporation, a Montreal-based provider of telecommunications finance.   1997 The Associates concludes its best year in history, surpassing $1 billion in net earnings and recording 23 consecutive years of earnings increases.   The U.S. consumer operations branch network acquires 29 branch offices and a consumer loan portfolio from American General Corporation.   The company acquires $2.2 billion in credit card receivables and more than 10 million new customers, including bank card portfolios from The Bank of New York, JCPenney and the Texaco private-label oil credit card operation. The Associates now issues two of the top five oil company private-label credit cards.   Auto fleet-leasing operations consolidate to form the third-largest U.S. fleet management company. The company expands to two new countries, Taiwan and Costa Rica. Japan surpasses $3 billion in receivables and Mexico expands to more than 40 offices.   1998 The Associates expands international operations in the first quarter through three major acquisitions. The acquisition of CEF Ltd. (Construction Equipment Finance) from the De Lage Landen Group adds more than 6,300 construction equipment finance contracts and $158 million in receivables in the United Kingdom. The purchase of Beneficial Canada Holdings Incorporated, the Canadian consumer finance subsidiary of Beneficial Corporation, adds 105 offices and C$1.1 billion in receivables. In Japan, the acquisition of DIC Finance, the country's ninth-largest consumer finance company, expands Japan operations by 201 offices.   The acquisition of SPS Transaction Services Inc. (now ACS) from Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter & Co. enables the company's credit card operation to embark upon a new market, the retail private-label card business.   On April 7, The Associates becomes a fully independent company again with the spin-off from Ford Motor Company in the form of a dividend to Ford shareholders. Associates First Capital Corporation is added to Standard & Poor's Financial 500 Index.   The acquisition of The Northland Company allows The Associates to expand its insurance business and complement its existing insurance products.   1999 Just days into 1999, The Associates closes its largest acquisition ever, that of Avco Financial Services, a leading diversified financial-services company with approximately $8.9 billion in assets, 8,000 employees, 1,265 branches and 2.5 million customers worldwide.   The company begins providing loan applications online, following an agreement with America Online (AOL) to become the interactive service’s premier home-equity lender.   In July, The Associates begins offering a revolutionary new product, the "Freedom Loan," which allows on-time customers to lower interest rates on real-estate loans by as much as 2.25 percent over a three-year period.   Completes agreement to manage BP Amoco's combined proprietary credit program in the U.S.   The company completes its 25th year of record earnings, with $1.49 billion in net income, total managed assets of $95 billion, and managed receivables of $84 billion.   2000 The Associates and KeyCorp agree to jointly manage KeyCorp’s credit card program.   An agreement is reached to acquire and manage the Shell proprietary credit card program.   On March 1, The Associates completes its agreement to acquire and manage the proprietary credit card program of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, acquiring $130 million in receivables and approximately 1.2 million active consumer accounts.   On April 3, Arcadia Financial Ltd., a national automobile finance company, is acquired. With the purchase, The Associates serves approximately 800,000 customers and 1,500 dealers in the U.S., and manages more than $7 billion in auto finance receivables.   On November 30, The Associates is acquired by Citigroup Inc.