American Express Company

Founded in 1850 as a freight-forwarding business, American Express expanded into financial products and travel services before introducing its charge card in the 1950s. It is now headquartered in New York and operates as a global payments company.

American Express serves consumers, small businesses, large corporations, travelers and merchants. Its activities include proprietary and partner-issued cards, lending, payment processing, commercial payment products, expense management, travel services and loyalty programmes.

The firm is especially strong in premium card products, customer service, Membership Rewards, travel and commercial payments. Its integrated model—combining card issuing, merchant relationships, payments technology and rewards—gives it a distinctive position versus banks that mainly issue cards on third-party networks.