American General Finance: one of the country's largest consumer-credit companies.

• Author: Derk, James S.
• Position: American General Finance Corp. in Evansville, Indiana - Company Profile

Since its founding in 1920, the company now known as American General Finance has been on a steady roll. Still headquartered in Evansville where it began, the company founded as Interstate Finance and later known as CrediThrift has been targeting a financial niche often overlooked by banks.

American General Finance has made its niche in 39 states by loaning relatively small amounts of money--generally $1,500 to $5,000--to a whole lot of people. Last year, that meant 2.3 million families.

And it has been doing its job well, especially since 1982, the start of a tremendous growth spurt. In 1992, the company celebrated a record financial year, with operating earnings of $161 million, up 18 percent over 1991, the previous banner year. The earnings came from $1.17 billion in revenue.

American General Finance's assets exceeded $7 billion, with finance receivables topping $6 billion. Its other core business besides making loans--insurance--also has enjoyed a surge. Last year was the company's best for net written insurance premiums, up 21 percent to $131 million.

Its third base, the More Card, now is ranked in the top 50 among issuers of Visa/MasterCards nationwide. Outstanding balances for the credit-card division in 1992 were $374 million, up 5 percent from year-earlier figures.

American General Finance is a subsidiary of giant American General Corp. of Houston, one of the country's leading providers of retirement annuities, loans and life-insurance products. The Evansville company was known as Interstate Finance until 1967, when it became CrediThrift. American General Corp. acquired CrediThrift in 1983.

Though the parent company is huge--with assets of $40 billion--the subsidiary has a decidedly different emphasis. Its operations, however, account for 26 percent of the parent's business segment earnings.

The company, headquartered in an office complex in downtown Evansville under the direction of Daniel Leitch III, president and CEO, has 7,300 employees nationwide. It started 73 years ago to underwrite sales of the Inland Motor Truck Co. in 1920. In 1928 it issued its first consumer loans. A year later it started writing credit-related insurance.

And there's been no looking back. There have been a series of rapid expansions of the company's business ever since, tied somewhat to a number of acquisitions. It bought Evansville Morris Plan in 1943, Merit Life Insurance in 1957, Morlan Pacific in 1971, General Finance in 1983 and Manufacturers...