American Express

American Express was founded on March 18, 1850, in Buffalo as a freight forwarding company by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo and John Warren Butterfield.⁠[1]

In 1868 the company merged with Merchants Union Express to create a money order to compete with those of government post offices.⁠[2]

In 1891 American Express invented the Travelers Cheque. In 1895 it opened its first exclusive overseas office, at 6 Rue Halevy in Paris.⁠[3]

In 1958 American Express introduced its Personal Card, which was launched with no credit limits.⁠[3][2]

American Express Company was incorporated in 1965 as a New York corporation.⁠[4]

On May 18, 1977, American Express officially listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.⁠[1]

The same year, James Robinson became CEO.⁠[2]

American Express purchased Shearson Loeb Rhoades and the Boston Company in 1981 and Lehman Brothers in 1984, and launched the Optima card in 1987.⁠[2]

Harvey Golub became chief executive officer in February 1993 and chairman in August 1993. During 1993 the subsidiary Lehman sold Shearson’s domestic retail brokerage and asset management businesses, along with the Boston Company’s private banking, trust and mutual fund administration businesses.⁠[5]

In January 1994 the board approved a tax-free spin-off of the common stock of its subsidiary Lehman.⁠[5]

American Express distributed approximately 98.2 million shares of Lehman Brothers common stock, all of its Lehman holding, as a special tax-free dividend to shareholders of record on May 20, 1994, at one Lehman share for every five American Express shares. Lehman began regular-way trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEH on May 31, 1994.⁠[6]

Kenneth Chenault took over as CEO in 2001 and in that year led the company through the September 11 attacks, which severely damaged its Manhattan headquarters.⁠[7]

On September 30, 2005, American Express completed the distribution of a special tax-free dividend of Ameriprise common stock, one Ameriprise share for every five American Express shares, with Ameriprise trading under the symbol AMP.⁠[8]

On November 10, 2008, the Federal Reserve Board approved American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company becoming bank holding companies upon the conversion of American Express Centurion Bank, of Salt Lake City, Utah, to a bank.⁠[9]

The change let the company grow deposits as a more stable form of funding and gave it greater access to Fed funding and government rescue programs. At the time its banks held just over $50 billion in assets and $14.4 billion in deposits.⁠[10]

On October 18, 2017, the company announced that Chenault would retire and that Vice Chairman Stephen Squeri would succeed him as chairman and CEO on February 1, 2018. Squeri joined the company in 1985 in its Travelers Cheques division.⁠[7]

In April 2018 Abbott Miller of Pentagram updated the Blue Box logo as part of the Powerful Backing global brand platform, the first update to the brand identity in 37 years. The design kept the outlined lettering across a blue square and added an alternate logo for small digital spaces that crops the wordmark to “Am Ex.”⁠[11]

On June 25, 2018, in Ohio v. American Express Co., the U.S. Supreme Court held 5–4 that American Express’s anti-steering rules do not violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion affirmed the Second Circuit, which had reversed the district court’s ruling against the company.⁠[12]

In August 2020 American Express agreed to acquire substantially all of Kabbage, a cash-flow management platform for small businesses. Terms were not disclosed, Kabbage’s existing loan portfolio was excluded, and the deal was expected to close later that year.⁠[13]

On October 15, 2024, American Express completed its acquisition of Tock, a reservation, table and event management technology provider, from Squarespace. Tock, which serves about 7,000 restaurants, wineries, hotels and other venues, operates as an independent division of American Express Global Dining, with its head reporting to the CEO of Resy.⁠[14]

On January 16, 2025, American Express announced agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and an agreement in principle with Federal Reserve Board staff to resolve investigations into historical sales practices for certain U.S. small business customers, paying approximately $230 million in total. The company had ended the practices in 2021 or earlier.⁠[15]

For full-year 2025, total revenues net of interest expense were $72.2 billion, up 10 percent year over year, and net income was $10.8 billion, compared with $10.1 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share were $15.38.⁠[16]

As of December 31, 2025, the company had approximately 76,800 employees.⁠[4]