is a diversified global financial services company, headquartered in
New York City . The company is best known for its
Credit Card ,
Charge Card and
Traveler's Cheque businesses.
The current CEO is
Kenneth Chenault , who took over in 2001. The company was led by
Harvey Golub from 1993 to 2001 and prior to that it was headed by
James D Robinson III from 1977 to 1993.
The company's common stock trades on the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol AXP. It is one of the 30 stocks that comprise the
Dow Jones Industrial Average .
It is commonly abbreviated in speech as "amex" (am-ex).
American Express was founded in 1850 by
Henry Wells ,
William Fargo , and
John Butterfield as an express business. In 1882, American Express launched its
Money Order business to compete with the US Post Office's money orders. This product quickly spread to Europe where no such financial product existed. Sometime between 1888 and 1890, J. C. Fargo took a trip to
Europe and returned frustrated and infuriated. Despite the fact that he was president of American Express and that he carried with him traditional
Letters Of Credit , he found it difficult to obtain cash anywhere except in major cities. Mr. Fargo went to
Marcellus Flemming Berry and asked him to create a better solution than the traditional letter of credit. Mr. Berry created the American Express
Travelers Cheque which was launched in
1891 in denominations of $10, $20, $50, and $100.
The travelers cheque established American Express as a truly international company and in
1915 they announced the establishment of a travel department and soon established its first
Travel Agencies .
During the winter of
1917 the US suffered a severe
Coal shortage and on
December 26 President Woodrow Wilson commandeered the railroads on behalf of the US government to move US troops, their supplies, and coal.
Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo was assigned the task of consolidating the railway lines for the war effort. All contracts between express companies and railroads were nullified and McAdoo proposed that all existing express companies be consolidated into a single company to serve the country's needs. This ended American Express's express business. The result was a new company called the
American Railway Express company formed in July
1918 . The new entity took custody of all the pooled equipment and property of existing express companies (the largest share of which, 40%, came from American Express who had owned 71,280 miles of railroad lines, 10,000 offices, with over 30,000 employees).
American Express executives discussed the possibility of launching a travel
Charge Card as early as
1946 , but it was not until
Diners Club launched their own card in March
1950 that American Express began to seriously consider the possibility. At the end of
1957 American Express CEO
Ralph Reed decided to get into the card business, and by the launch date of
October 1 ,
1958 public interest had become so significant that they actually issued 250,000 cards prior to the official launch date. The card was launched with an annual fee of $6, $1 higher than Diners Club, to be seen as a premium product. The first cards were paper, with the account number and cardmember's name typed. It was not until 1959 that American Express began issuing embossed
ISO 7810 plastic cards, an industry first.
In
1966 American Express introduced the
Gold Card and in
1984 the
Platinum Card , clearly defining different market segments within its own business, a practice that has proliferated across a broad array of industries. The Platinum Card was billed as super-exclusive and had a $250 annual fee. It was offered by invitation only to American Express customers with at least 2 years of tenure, significant spending, and excellent payment history.
In
1987 , American Express introduced the Optima card, their first revolving credit product. Previously, all American Express cards had to be paid in full each month, but Optima allowed customers to carry a balance, which is now commonplace among most American Express cards (with the exception of the traditional green, gold, platinum, and Centurion cards, which remain charge cards). Although Optima is no longer heavily promoted, an upgraded Optima Platinum is still available on the American Express website.
In
1999 American Express introduced the
Centurion Card or "black card" catering to an even more affluent and elite customer segment. It charged a $1,000 annual fee, with a variety of exclusive benefits. Also, in 1999 the company introduced a marketing triumph, Blue from American Express, a popular card among the young and techno-savvy with its multi-functional onboard chip.
There have always been rumors of a super-exclusive card that gives American Express' richest and most powerful customers special perks. It was this rumor that sparked the launch of Centurion.
{Link without Title} As Of 2005 , the Centurion card has a $2500 annual fee.
Also, in
2005 , American Express introduced ExpressPay, a wireless
RFID payment method that requires a card to simply be tapped to a special reader and not swiped. This technology replaced the smart chip on the Blue from American Express card. A growing number of merchant and restaurant partners including
7-Eleven ,
CVS/pharmacy ,
McDonald's , and
Ritz Camera now offer ExpressPay at most or all of their locations.
In 2005 American Express introduced Clear from American Express, touted as the first card that has absolutely no fees of any kind. It also incorporates their Express Pay technology found in Blue from American Express. Also in 2005, American Express introduced One from American Express, a card with a "Savings Accelerator Plan" that contributes 1% of eligible purchases into an FDIC-insured High-Yield Savings Account in your name.
Other cards introduced in 2005, "The Knot" and "The Nest" Credit Cards from American Express. They have also introduced City Reward Cards to earn INSIDE Rewards points to eat, drink, and play at New York, Chicago and LA hot spots.
From the early 1980s until the late 1990s, American Express was known for cutting its merchant fees (also known as a "discount rate") to fine merchants and restaurants if they only accepted American Express and no other credit or charge cards. This prompted competitors such as Visa and MasterCard to cry foul, and American Express phased out most elements of the program in the late 90s in favor of encouraging most establishments to accept American Express cards in addition to other credit cards. There are still some exceptions, though. Some restaurants in major cities still exclusively acccept American Express due to the fact that the vast majority of their customers primarily use AmEx cards. Likewise,
Neiman Marcus only accepts American Express and their store card, however, the current exclusive agreement with American Express is due to expire soon and may not be renewed as an exclusive agreement.
Costco also has an exclusivity agreement with American Express; however, Costco's agreement with AmEx was the result of a long negotiation process for exclusive acceptance with multiple parties that also included Visa, MasterCard, and Morgan Stanley-owned Discover.
In 1975,
David Ogilvy of
Ogilvy & Mather developed the highly successful "Don't Leave Home Without It" ad campaign for the American Express card. A typical ad showed a celebrity saying "Do you know me?", giving some hints, but the person's name was never mentioned except as imprinted on an American Express card. The ad campaign ended in the early 1990s; however, the "Don't Leave Home Without It" slogan was revived in 2005 for the prepaid American Express Travelers Cheque Card.
To this day, American Express continues to use celebrities in their ads. Some notable examples include a late 1990s ad campaign with comedian
Jerry Seinfeld . In late 2004, American Express launched the "My life. My card." brand campaign (also by Ogilvy & Mather) featuring famous American Express cardmembers talking about their life. The ads have featured actress
Kate Winslet , Duke University basketball coach
Mike Krzyzewski , and film director
M. Night Shyamalan , among others.
Many American Express credit card ads feature a sample American Express card with the name "C F Frost" on the front. This is not a fabricated name, as Charles F. Frost was an advertising executive.
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During the 1980s, American Express embarked on its dream to become a financial services supercompany. In mid-1981 it purchased
Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc the second largest
Securities Firm in the US. In 1984 it purchased the 90-year old
IDS Company , bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products. Also in 1984, American Express acquired the investment banking and trading firm,
Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb , and added it to the Shearson family, creating Shearson Lehman/American Express. In 1988, the Firm acquired
E.F. Hutton , forming
Shearson Lehman Hutton until 1990, when the Firm's name became Shearson Lehman Brothers. When Harvey Golub took the reins in 1993 he negotiated the sale of Shearson's retail brokerage and asset management business to
Primerica and in following year, spun-off of the remaining investment banking and institutional businesses as
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc .
In April 1986 American Express moved its headquarters to the
American Express Tower , the center of the
World Financial Center in New York City. The 51-story building was an architectural triumph and noted as a significant and important addition to the city. After the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001 , American Express had to leave its headquarters temporarily as the building was damaged during the attacks - it was located directly across the street from the
World Trade Center . The American Express tower became the backdrop to efforts in rescue, recovery, and reconstruction at
Ground Zero . The company began gradually moving back into its rehabilitated building in 2002.
American Express has its European Headquarters in
Brighton , on the south coast of the United Kingdom.
In April
1992 , American Express spun off its subsidiary,
First Data Corp. , in an IPO. Then, in October
1996 , the company distributed the remaining majority of its holdings in First Data Corp., reducing its ownership to less than 5%.
In
December 2000 , American Express agreed to acquire the credit card portfolio of
Bank Of Hawaii , then a division of
Pacific Century Financial Corp. Bank of Hawaii, along with its sister bank, Pacific Century Bank, became the first U.S. banks to issue American Express cards when the deal was completed the following year. In January 2006, American Express sold its Bank of Hawaii card portfolio to
Bank Of America (
MBNA ). Bank of America wiil issue
Visa and American Express cards under the Bank of Hawaii name.
In January 2004, American Express reached a deal to have its cards issued by a U.S. bank,
MBNA America. Initially decried by
MasterCard executives as nothing but an "experiment", these cards were released in October of 2004. Some said that the relationship was going to be threatened by MBNA's merger with
Bank Of America , a major Visa issuer. However, an agreement was reached between American Express and Bank of America on December 21, 2005. Under the terms of the agreement, Bank of America will own the customer loans and American Express will process the transactions. Also, American Express will dismiss Bank of America from its antitrust litigation against Visa, MasterCard and a number of U.S. banks. Finally, both Bank of America and American Express also said an existing card-issuing partnership between MBNA and American Express will continue after the Bank of America-MBNA merger.
Since then,
Citigroup and
GE Consumer Finance have also started issuing American Express cards. Citibank currently issues several American Express cards including an
American Airlines AAdvantage co-branded card, while GE is currently issuing a co-branded card for
Dillard's .
HSBC Bank USA will also introduce co-branded American Express cards later this year for several of its private-label retail partners; however, those partners have yet to be announced at this time.
On
30 September , 2005, American Express spun off its American Express Financial Advisors unit as a publicly traded company,
Ameriprise Financial . Due to this, American Express revenues for 2005 are down around $5 billion, however, like-for-like they are up 10.5% in 2005.
Current members of the
Board Of Directors of American Express include:
