HOUSTON — The PULSE EFT Association, a longtime leader in the ATM and EFT worlds that eventually became a subsidiary of the Discover Card brand, is 25 years old this month.

It was a quarter century ago–1981–that seven Texas-based bank holding companies joined forces to launch a cooperative system to switch and settle transactions among multiple financial institutions originating at a new device known as an Automated Teller Machine, PULSE said.

“Those leaders who founded PULSE had the vision to place the common interest above their own in establishing a shared network model,” said Stan Paur, chairman of PULSE. “What resulted was an industry-directed company, staffed by an incredible group of people that has proven to be of enormous value to the financial industry and consumers.”

Under the long-term leadership of Paur, PULSE played a key role in providing vital information to Congress that helped defeat federal legislation that would have restricted the growth of ATM access. PULSE also played an instrumental role in 1999 when it led in forming a coalition of payments networks to conduct an unprecedented unified campaign to prepare for Y2K.