Historical Echoes: One Giant Step for Banking

New York Fed Research Library

“Lamar Pioneers in Space, the New Frontier” is the headline of an advertisement that appeared in the April 1985 issue of Texas Monthly magazine. The ad indicates that Texas-chartered savings and loan “Lamar Savings now is making plans for a full service branch on the moon.”

“(A)s the first American financial institution to apply for a lunar branch, Lamar is proud of its leadership role . . . in developing this incredible new frontier. . . . (T)he company . . .  will be at work on the extensive preparations necessary before it can serve the needs of the U.S. space community on the moon. The lunar office is simply a logical next step . . .”

According to Nathan C. Goldman, author of “American Space Law: International and Domestic” (Univelt, 1996), Lamar Savings and Loan Association “hired attorneys who processed the application [to acquire permission to open a branch office on the moon] with full seriousness through the state system.”

Update: Lamar Savings Association is currently inactive; it was acquired by Southwest Savings Association in 1988.

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