In the late 1980s, consultants Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris met at Strategic Planning Associates (which became Mercer Management Consulting) and devised a new way to market and structure credit cards. They felt that most credit card issuers were too bland in the way they conceived of their products - that they didn't understand completely how individual customers require customized products. They shopped their idea from bank to bank, getting no takers until finally selling Virginia-based Signet Banking Corporation in Richmond on their sch ...