Paper short abstract:

This communication intends to describe the dynamic of retail credit by focusing on the calculation practices, machines, registration techniques and documents that assist the qualification of credit services.

Paper long abstract:

Based on fieldwork conducted in two Portuguese banks, this communication intends to describe the dynamic of retail credit by focusing on the calculation practices, machines, registration techniques and documents that assist agency in the banking world. Ethnography will be centred on marketing departments, highlighting the central stages of what may be termed the "qualifications" or "metamorphoses" of credit services—starting from conception to formatting, promotion, adaptation, transmutation and, finally, internal supervision. Through this excursion, attention will be given to the articulation between marketing and other banking departments, to the competitive interplay between different banking institutions, as well as to the cooperation between banks and firms or regulators. The constitution of credit markets both at a national (retail) and international (financial) scale shall be the object of a final discussion that links the dynamic of product qualification with the organization of mass payment behaviour capable of generating substantial electronic cash flows.