American Express was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York. It is known best for its global payments and travel operations. The Company’s principal products and services are charge and credit card products, and travel-related services offered to consumers and businesses around the world.  The company operates under two divisions – the Global Consumer Group, and the Global Business-to-Business Group. In February 2008, the company announced that it has completed the sale of its international banking subsidiary, American Express Bank Ltd. (AEB), to Standard Chartered PLC.

The Global Consumer Group offers a range of products and services including, charge and lending card products, consumer travel services, and stored value products, such as Travelers Cheques and prepaid products. The Business-to-Business Group provides business travel, and corporate cards and other expense management products and services; network services and merchant acquisition, and merchant processing for the company’s network partners and proprietary payments businesses; and point-of-sale, back-office, and marketing products and services for merchants. The company also publishes luxury lifestyle magazines.

On November 10, 2008 American Express transformed itself into a bank holding company in order to better take advantage of tools to help deal with the struggling economy. Along those lines, in late December 2008 the company announced its intent to participate in the Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase Program. Under the program, American Express is expected to receive $3.39 billion from the Treasury. On January 9, Treasury and American Express signed an agreement stipulating the terms of the sale of stock that would generate the $3.39 billion. American Express returned the funds in full on June 9, 2009.

2008-12-23 American Express 8K

2008-09-30 American Express 10Q

Treasury Agreement for Stock Sale

2007 American Express Annual Report

2007 American Express Proxy

2007 American Express 10K

►Federal contracts

USAspending.gov (last accessed 01/15/2009)

►Lobbying reports (if any)

American Capitol Group | American Express Company | The Baptista Group | Valerie Morse White Consulting

►Political Contributions

Center for Responsive Politics (last accessed 01/15/2009)

►Related Articles

January 16, 2009 Report Finds Many Companies Avoid Paying Billions in Taxes (Washington Post)

January 13, 2009, During financial pinch, banks reduce credit card rewards, (USA Today)

December 22, 2008, S&P cuts long-term ratings on American Express (BusinessWeek)

November 10, 2008 American Express to Be Bank Holding Company (NY Times)

  Last Updated March 12, 2009