From pawn to plastic

A global history of consumer credit

12 Jun 2026 at 9:30am

Milan, Italy

eabh in cooperation with Mediobanca.

This conference explores the long-run global history of consumer credit, from pawnshops and instalment plans to credit cards and digital lending.

Historians, economists, legal scholars, practitioners and archivists are invited to present research on changing attitudes, institutions, instruments and regulations  that shape household borrowing.

 

Programme

11 June 2026

19.30 Conference Dinner

12 June 2026

9:30 Coffee 10:00 Welcome speech Luigi Pace (Compass) 10:15 Opening - Consumer credit: A family history Hugo Bänziger (eabh & Quintet Private Bank) 10:30 Keynote - Market trends in digital lending Chiara Frigerio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) 11:00 Early credit and lending to the poor Lending to the working poor in early modern Italy: Lessons from the past Mauro Carboni (University of Bologna) Piety in crisis: Banking to the poor during the Great Depression: The Municipal Pawn Bank of Bogotá Carlos A. Brando (Universidad de los Andes & Universidad Católica de Colombia, Bogotá) Q&A/Discussion Moderator: Hugo Bänziger (eabh & Quintet Private Bank) 11:45 Coffee 12:15 The rise of consumer credit markets Inventing consumer credit: Compass and the transformation of instalment sales in Postwar Italy Mario Robiony (Mediobanca & University of Udine) Social policy and the long expansion of consumer credit in Argentina Tomás Nougués (UNSAM/ CONICET) Q&A/Discussion Moderator: Coşkun Tunçer (University College London) 13:00 Lunch 13:45 Keynote - Plastic capitalism: US credit cards in global perspective Sean Vanatta (University of Glasgow) 14:15 Technologies of consumer credit The Bankomat: A parenthesis between paper, plastic and silicon Klara Järgenstedt (Universtiy of Gothenburg) BNPL in Italy: Market trends, consumer insights, and regulatory shifts Matteo Risi (Politecnico di Milano) Q&A/Discussion Moderator: Juan Flores Zendejas (University of Geneva) 15:00 Coffee 15:15 Institutions and regulation of consumer credit Consumer credit: From punch cards to computers (1950s -1970s) Marion Lacoume (BNP Paribas) From conceptual absence to financial citizenship: Reconfiguring consumer credit in Türkiye M. Fatih Karakaya (Istanbul University) Q&A/Discussion Moderator: Andreas Kakridis (Bank of Greece) 16:00 Conference Wrap-Up If not otherwise specified, all events take place at Mediobanca, Via Filodrammatici 3, Milan Dress code: Smart business