Early history In 1850, American Express was started as a freight forwarding company in
Buffalo, New York. It was founded as a joint-stock corporation by the merger of the cash-in-transit companies owned by
Henry Wells (Wells & Company),
William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and
John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company, the successor earlier in 1850 of Butterfield, Wasson & Company). In 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. The company's first New York headquarters was an 1858 marble Italianate palazzo at 55–61
Hudson Street, which had a busy freight depot on the ground story with a spur line from the
Hudson River Railroad. A stable was constructed in 1867, five blocks north at 4–8 Hubert Street. The company prospered sufficiently that headquarters were moved in 1874 from the wholesale shipping district to the budding Financial District and into rented offices in two five-story brownstone commercial buildings at 63 and 65 Broadway that were owned by the Harmony family. In 1880, American Express built a new warehouse behind the Broadway Building at 46 Trinity Place. The designer is unknown, but it has a façade of brick arches that are reminiscent of pre-skyscraper New York. American Express has long been out of this building, but it still bears a
terracotta seal with the American Express bulldog logo. In 1890–91 the company constructed a new ten-story building by
Edward H. Kendall on the site of its former headquarters on
Hudson Street. By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, second only to the
National City Bank of New York among financial institutions in the city. To reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site. American Express sold this building in 1975, but retained travel services there. The building was also the headquarters over the years of other prominent firms, including investment bankers
J.& W. Seligman & Co. (1940–74), the
American Bureau of Shipping, a maritime concern (1977–86), and later J.J. Kenny, and
Standard & Poor's, the latter of which renamed the building for itself. Traveler's cheques established American Express as a truly international company. In 1914, at the onset of
World War I, American Express in Europe was among the few companies to honor the letters of credit (issued by various banks) held by Americans in Europe, because other financial institutions refused to assist these stranded travelers. The British government appointed American Express its official agent at the beginning of World War I. They were to deliver letters, money, and relief parcels to British prisoners of war. Their employees went into camps to cash drafts for both British and French prisoners and arranged for them to receive money from home. By the end of the war they were delivering 150 tonnes of parcels per day to prisoners in six countries. In 1915, American Express established a travel division and soon established its first
travel agency.
Albert K. Dawson was instrumental in expanding business operations overseas, even investing in tourist relations with the
Soviet Union. During World War I, Dawson was a photographer and film correspondent with the German army.
End of railroad express business American Express was one of the monopolies that President
Theodore Roosevelt had the
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) investigate during his administration (1901–1909). The interest of the ICC was drawn to its strict control of the railroad express business. However, the solution did not come immediately to hand. 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 made of paper, with the account number and card member's name typed. In 1959, American Express became the first company to issue embossed plastic cards. In 1966, American Express introduced the Gold Card for "big-spending members". In 1977,
James D. Robinson III became chairman and CEO of the company. In 1979, American Express acquired 50% of the cable subsidiary of
Warner Communications, forming
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, for $175 million in cash and short-term notes. It owned two-thirds of
Qube, an experimental two-way cable TV service, along with
MTV,
Nickelodeon, and
The Movie Channel. The venture was unprofitable, and, in 1985, Amex sold its 50% interest to
Viacom for $450 million.
1980s and 1990s In the 1980s, American Express embarked on an effort to become a financial services holding company and made several acquisitions, creating an investment banking arm. In mid-1981 it purchased
Sanford I. Weill's
Shearson Loeb Rhoades, the second-largest securities firm in the United States to form
Shearson/American Express. Shearson Loeb Rhoades itself was the culmination of several mergers in the 1970s as Weill's
Hayden, Stone & Co. merged with
Shearson, Hammill & Co. in 1974, to form
Shearson Hayden Stone. Shearson Hayden Stone then merged with
Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co. (formerly
Loeb, Rhoades & Co.) to form Shearson Loeb Rhoades in 1979. With capital totaling $250 million at the time of its acquisition, Shearson Loeb Rhoades was the second-largest
brokerage firm, behind
Merrill Lynch. After the purchase of Shearson, Weill was given the position of president of American Express in 1983. Weill grew increasingly unhappy with responsibilities within the company and his conflicts with CEO
James D. Robinson III. Weill soon realized that he was not positioned to be named CEO and resigned in August 1985. In 1984, American Express acquired
Lehman Brothers and added it to the Shearson family, creating Shearson Lehman/American Express. Lehman CEO and former trader
Lewis Glucksman became CEO of Shearson Lehman/American Express. In 1984, Shearson/American Express acquired
Investors Diversified Services (IDS), bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products. In 1988, Shearson Lehman acquired the
E.F. Hutton & Co., a brokerage firm that was merged with the investment banking business. The investment banking arm was renamed
Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. In 1983, as part of Robinson's plan to expand into international banking of wealthy clients, Amex acquired
Trade Development Bank of
Geneva from
Edmond Safra for US$550 million and Safra became a member of the
board of directors of Amex. TDB executives were excluded from important company decisions and Safra unsuccessfully tried to repurchase the bank. Safra then opened a competing bank. In response, American Express launched an international smear campaign against Safra by inaccurately reporting to news and media outlets in that Safra was being investigated by the
FBI for being involved in the
Iran–Contra affair, along with drug trafficking and the mafia. All of the accusations were confirmed to be false and led to the resignation of Harry L. Freeman, public relations chief of American Express, after admitting to the entire scandal. In July 1989, American Express publicly apologized to Edmond Safra and donated $8 million to the charity of his choice. In 1990, American Express sold its Swiss banking operations to Compagnie de Banque et d'Investissements, which led to the creation of
Union Bancaire Privée (UBP). In 1984, Amex launched the Platinum Card, billed as an "ultra-exclusive" credit card with a $250 annual fee. It was offered by invitation only to American Express customers with at least two years of tenure, significant spending, and excellent payment history. In 1987, American Express introduced the Optima card, its first credit card product that did not have to be paid in full at the end of the month. In 1991, a group of restaurants in
Boston, including some that were exclusive to Amex, stopped accepting American Express while accepting and encouraging the use of Visa and Mastercard. The rationale was due to far lower fees as compared to American Express' fees at the time (which were about 4% for each transaction versus around 1.2% for Visa and Mastercard). The revolt, known as the "Boston Fee Party" (alluding to the
Boston Tea Party), spread to over 250 restaurants across the United States, including restaurants in other cities such as
New York City,
Chicago, and
Los Angeles. Visa offered to pay the Fee Party's legal bills, and
Discover Card was able to increase its acceptance among Boston restaurants by 375%.
Kenneth Chenault, then head of Travel Related Services prior to becoming American Express CEO, cut fees to bring these restaurants back into the fold. American Express then shifted its focus from exclusivity to broadening acceptance, adding mainstream merchants like
Walmart to the American Express network. American Express was, at the time, known for cutting its
interchange fee to merchants and restaurants if they accepted only American Express and no other credit or charge cards. This prompted competitors such as Visa and Mastercard to file complaints as the tactics gave Amex exclusivity at restaurants. Capitalizing on this elitist image, American Express frequently mentioned such exclusive partnerships in its advertising. Aside from some holdouts including
Neiman Marcus, which continued exclusivity until 2011, the practice largely ended in 1991. In 1993,
Harvey Golub became CEO of American Express. That year, American Express negotiated the sale of Shearson's retail brokerage and investment management business to
Primerica. The Shearson business was merged with Primerica's
Smith Barney to create
Smith Barney Shearson. In June 1994, American Express completed the spin-off of the remaining
investment banking and institutional businesses as
Lehman Brothers, ending its foray into the brokerage business. In September 1994, the Optima True Grace card was introduced. The card was unique in that it offered a
grace period on all purchases whether a balance was carried on the card or not, not charging interest on new purchases immediately for cards with unpaid balances. The card was discontinued a few years later. In 1998, Amex launched the Blue credit card, targeted at young adults, in the UK after testing it in other countries. The card had a smart chip and users were encouraged to pay bills and get information via the company website. It launched in the US in 1999. A television media campaign for Blue adopted the 1979 UK
Synthpop hit "
Cars" by
Gary Numan as its theme music. In 1999, American Express introduced the high-fee
Centurion Card, often referred to as the "black card", which caters to an even more affluent customer segment. The card was initially available only to select users of the Platinum card. American Express created the card line amid rumors and
urban legends in the 1980s that it produced an ultra-exclusive black card for elite users who could purchase anything with it.
21st century In December 2000, American Express agreed to acquire the $226 million credit card portfolio of
Bank of Hawaii, then a division of
Pacific Century Financial Corporation In January 2006, American Express sold its Bank of Hawaii card portfolio to
Bank of America (
MBNA). Until 2004, Visa and Mastercard rules prohibited issuers of their cards from issuing American Express cards in the United States. This meant, as a practical matter, that U.S. banks could not issue American Express cards. These rules were struck down as a result of antitrust litigation brought by the
United States Department of Justice. In January 2004, American Express reached a deal to have its cards issued by
MBNA. Initially decried by Mastercard executives as nothing but an "experiment", the cards were issued beginning in October 2004. An agreement was reached regarding the acquisition of MBNA by Bank of America whereby Bank of America owned the customer loans and American Express processed the transactions. American Express dismissed Bank of America from its antitrust litigation against Visa, Mastercard, and other banks. The first card from the partnership, the Bank of America Rewards American Express card, was released on June 30, 2006. In June 2005, American Express introduced ExpressPay, a
contactless payment system based on wireless
RFID. In July 2005, American Express issued the American Express Travelers Cheque Card, a
stored-value card that serves the same purposes as a traveler's cheque, but can be used in stores like a credit card. Amex discontinued the card in October 2007. On September 30, 2005, American Express completed the corporate spin-off of its American Express Financial Advisors unit,
Ameriprise Financial, to its shareholders and
RSM McGladrey acquired American Express Tax & Business Services (TBS). In 2006, the UK division of American Express joined the
Product Red coalition and issued a Red Card, donating with each purchase through
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help African women and children with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. In late 2007, the company announced the Plum Card for small business owners. In March 2008, American Express acquired the Corporate Payment Services business of
General Electric, which primarily focused on providing purchasing card solutions for large global clients, for $1.1 billion in cash. The transaction added V-Payment to its product portfolio. V-Payment enables a tightly controlled, single-use card number. In March 2008,
Standard Chartered Bank acquired American Express Bank Ltd, the international banking subsidiary of American Express for $823 million. On November 10, 2008, during the
2008 financial crisis, the company received
Federal Reserve System approval to convert to a
bank holding company, making it eligible for government assistance under the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). At that time, American Express had total consolidated assets of about $127 billion. As part of the conversion, the company reduced or closed many business lines of credit. In 2009, American Express introduced the ZYNC charge card, a white card targeting young adults. The card was later discontinued. In November 2010, the UK division of American Express was cautioned by the
Office of Fair Trading for the use of controversial
charging orders against those in debt. The company was one of four companies who were allegedly encouraging customers to turn their unsecured credit card debts into a form of secured debt. In November 2011,
Neiman Marcus, which gave general-purpose card exclusivity to American Express since the 1980s, began accepting cards using the Visa and Mastercard payment networks. In 2011, Amex launched the Blue Cash Preferred Card credit card. In October 2012, The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) required three American Express subsidiaries to refund an estimated $85 million to approximately 250,000 customers for illegal card practices between 2003 and 2012. Allegations included that American Express made misleading statements regarding signup bonuses, charged unlawful late fees, discriminated against applicants due to age, and failed to report consumer complaints to regulators. Also in October 2012, American Express and
Walmart announced the launch of Bluebird, a
prepaid debit card with
roadside assistance and
identity theft protection that can also be used as a substitute for a traditional transactional account whereby users can have payments deposited to the account and have insurance from the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In October 2013, Amex sold most of its publications:
Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Executive Travel,
Black Ink, and
Departures magazines, to
Time Inc. Time restructured the publications, which are now owned by
Dotdash Meredith. at Terminal 4 in
JFK Airport (2025) In 2013, the company opened its first airport lounge, offering access to certain cardmembers. In March 2014, American Express announced the corporate spin-off its corporate travel business as
American Express Global Business Travel and the sale of 50% of the business to an investor group led by Certares LP for $900 million. Effective in 2016 in the United States, and in 2015 in Canada, Costco ended its relationship with Amex that had provided co-branded Costco membership cards since 2004. The cards issued by Costco in the United States were an extension of an exclusive deal between Costco and American Express dating from 1999. Costco was the last major US merchant that accepted American Express cards exclusively. Costco's Canadian stores ended its exclusive deal with American Express in January 2015, in favor of one with
Capital One and Mastercard.
Citigroup became the exclusive issuer of Costco's credit cards and Visa replaced American Express as the exclusive credit card accepted at Costco's stores in the United States. All TrueEarnings card accounts and balances held by American Express were sold to Citigroup, and new Costco Anywhere Visa cards were sent to Costco members prior to the switch date. The Costco partnership represented 8%, or $80 billion, of American Express' billed business and about 20%, or about $14 billion, of its interest-bearing credit portfolio. On March 1, 2017,
ANZ announced that it was no longer issuing American Express cards, with them phased out entirely by August 5, 2017. In October 2017, American Express established a joint venture company, LianTong (), in China to operate its payment card brand locally. In June 2020, it obtained a local bank card
clearing business license in China. In a court case
Ohio v. American Express Co. (2018), merchants filed a
class action lawsuit against American Express and claimed that charging high fees to merchants is a violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act. According to the lawsuit, American Express charges significantly higher fees than other credit card providers. In January 2017, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that American Express could block merchants that accept its cards from steering customers to other cards, like those offered by Visa and Mastercard. In June 2018, the
Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the 2nd Circuit's ruling. In 2018, the Gold Card was converted to a credit card for UK residents, but remains a charge card in the US. In March 2019, American Express acquired LoungeBuddy, a provider which offers pay-per-use access to select airport lounges worldwide. Also in March 2019, Amex reduced its presence in the European Union, due to changes to the EU's banking regulations. In July 2019, Amex acquired Acompay, a digital payment automation platform. In September 2019,
Pedestrian Group acquired American Express Openair Cinemas, which facilitated outdoor showings of films at 10 locations in Australia and New Zealand and was operated by Fairfax Events. In 2020, American Express acquired
Kabbage. In June 2021, the company's first checking account for small businesses, Kabbage Checking, was launched. American Express also offers credit lines of $1,000 to $150,000 for small businesses, using Kabbage's automated underwriting software. In January 2023, the Kabbage brand was renamed American Express Business Blueprint. In January 2021, the
United States Department of the Treasury, the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the
Federal Reserve launched an investigation into whether the company had misled potential corporate customers and used aggressive tactics while selling American Express cards in 2015 and 2016. In October 2021, Amex launched full-service business checking for small and mid-sized businesses under the American Express brand. In March 2022, following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine and
related sanctions, American Express suspended all operations in
Russia and
Belarus. In July 2023, Amex agreed to pay $15 million to the US Treasury to settle an investigation accusing the company of failing to govern and oversee a third-party affiliate and for violation of regulations in efforts to retain small business customers. Net income for 2023 was $8.4 billion, 14% higher than expected. Also in 2023, the company undertook a restructuring, costing up to $277 million. In June 2024, Amex acquired
Tock, a restaurant reservation platform, further expanding its portfolio in dining reservations following its earlier acquisition of
Resy. In January 2025, American Express announced that it will pay about $230 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil probes into alleged deceptive practices in selling credit card and wire transfer products to small business customers. The company has agreed to pay $138.4 million, which includes about $108 million in fines, and entered a non-prosecution agreement to end criminal and civil probes by the U.S. Department of Justice. In September 2025, American Express increased its annual fee for its Platinum card for the first time since 2021, raising it to $895 from $695. The company announced new benefits for cardholders including statement credits for
Lululemon,
Oura Ring,
Resy restaurants and an
Uber One membership. It also increased credits for luxury hotel stays, streaming subscriptions (including the addition of
Paramount+,
YouTube Premium and
YouTube TV) and a Clear membership. In October 2025, merchants agreed to a $231.7 million settlement before a U.S. District Judge, as
B & R Supermarket, Inc., et al v. Visa, Inc. et al, for costs imposed in frauds related to counterfeit, lost, or stolen cards, with American Express agreeing to pay $20 million of the total settlement.
Financial history ==Products==