American Express Co. AXP

What this company does

American Express offers products and services through its card-issuing, merchant-acquiring and card network businesses to customers including consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations around the world. Its range of products and services includes credit and charge cards with travel, dining, lifestyle and expense management products; banking and other payment and financing products, including deposits and non-card lending; merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, fraud prevention and point-of-sale marketing; and network services. Worldwide billed business, that is, spending on the cards it issues, was $1,670 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025, and it had 86.6 million proprietary cards-in-force worldwide at that date. It employed approximately 76,800 people at that date, approximately 25,900 of them in the United States and approximately 50,900 outside the United States. The company principally engages in businesses comprising four reportable operating segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services and Global Merchant and Network Services. Card products, rewards and services are offered in the United States and internationally through the USCS, CS and ICS reportable operating segments. It was founded as a joint stock association and incorporated in 1965 as a New York corporation.

Written from the business description in AMERICAN EXPRESS CO's annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed 6 February 2026. Every sentence was checked against that document before publication.