Gross or open accounts (GAC) for U.S. credit cards among the Big 6 U.S issuers climbed 2.4% year-on-year (YOY) in the third quarter (3Q/15) to 272.0 million, compared to 269.1 million in the prior quarter, and 265.7 million one-year ago.
Dollar General and Rite Aid have joined the growing American Express Serve Free Cash Reload network. Serve is AmEx’s general purpose prepaid card.
American Express Canada has completed its move to a new state-of-the-art facility in Toronto for 2,200 employees. The new location is incorporating AmEx’s new BlueWork environment, i.e. no traditional cubicles and no assigned desks.
American Express lost a major court decision over its rules that prohibit merchants from telling customers they prefer to accept one card over another. AmEx previously said if the lose the case it will materially affect their business.
There is a strong possibility interchange fees on some European debit and credit card transactions will officially be capped by the European Parliament and the European Council before year-end 2015. Banks will be most impacted, but three-party systems that rely on bank issuers will also feel the impact.
American Express reported fourth-quarter net income rose 8% to $103 million for its International Card Services unit while the Global Network and Merchant Services division posted a 13% rise in net income to $399 million. AmEx’s Global Commercial Services net Q4 income more than doubled to $182 million. AmEx says the increase in International Card Services total Q4 revenue of $1.4 billion was driven by higher cardholder spending and higher net card fees. Total Q4 revenue, net of interest expense, for Global Network and Merchant Services, also rose to $1.4 billion, reflecting higher merchant-related revenues driven by an increase in global cardholder spending. Global Commercial Services total revenues increased 2% to $1.2 billion, primarily due to higher cardholder spending.
MasterCard Worldwide has appointed Kevin Goldmintz as head of Hong Kong & Macau. Goldmintz joined MasterCard in 2004 and was initially based in Hong Kong, where he successfully launched the joint MasterCard-Citi Commercial Card business in more than seven markets in Asia Pacific. He moved to Australia in 2007 to lead the Citi Australia account which includes Citi’s largest commercial card business in Asia Pacific. He was also responsible for signing MasterCard’s first ever airline co-branding deal in Australia with Emirates airline. He worked as a Product Manager for ANZ Bank, one of the largest commercial card issuers in Australia, managing the SME portfolio-the largest SME card portfolio in the country- and led the Qantas-ANZ airline co-branded card project and was responsible for the overall relationship with Qantas.
American Express established a new partnership with Lianlian Group payment service company, authorizing technology and investing. With this, AmEx will license its digital wallet “Serve” commerce technology to the Zhejiang-based Lianlian Group. The Chinese company will be allowed to apply the technology in its payment services, but will not necessarily use the Serve brand. AmEx plans to expand its Chinese presence and open a new office. This after having made an equity investment of US$125 million in its new partner. This ultimately will help AmEx improve its operating leverage in China and reach out to its merchants more efficiently, compared to other foreign payment service companies.
Amex Bank of Canada announced that British Airways has joined the American Express Membership Rewards as one of the Program’s newest points transfer participants. American Express Cardmembers enrolled in Membership Rewards are now able to transfer their points into BA Miles. BA Miles reward options include travel to any destination in British Airways’ worldwide network and with partner and oneworld alliance airlines. Membership Rewards is an American Express loyalty program that offers points on your eligible purchases or points for virtually every dollar in purchases charged to the Card.
Prepaid card provider nFinanSe has entered into a partnership with American Express to offer branded gift cards.
The agreement appoints nFinanSe as American Express’ authorized representative to offer, sell and distribute American Express
Gift Cards on a consignment basis through American Express-approved participating third party retailers.
The term of the Agreement is three years.
Moody’s has confirmed the ratings on 34 classes and downgraded the
ratings on 22 classes of subordinated asset-backed securities issued out of
the “American Express Credit Account Master Trust” and the “American
Express Credit Account Secured Note Trust”. The
securities are backed by a $35.5 billion revolving pool of unsecured
consumer general purpose bank credit card receivables originated by
American Express Co. and its affiliates.
Approximately $3.3 billion of asset-backed securities are affected.
Moody’s performance expectation for the Trust charge-off rate is 12%-15%,
principal payment rate is 21%-24% and yield is 22%-25%. This range of
expected yield performance considers the recently employed structural
feature known as discounting that will bolster yield.
A new survey from American Express finds that companies are focusing on three core strategies to improve expense management: hold employees accountable, drive value through data analysis, and plan for the long-term. The Accenture survey for AmEx’s Commercial Cards also found that companies are instituting a number of best practices to control their costs in an economic downturn. Other suggestions/findings: sending automatic email notifications to employees to encourage compliance to spending policies and to remind individuals when they miss expense submission deadlines; using a database tool to gather global expense information, as well as corporate, agency and ERP data on a monthly basis to help them manage expenses and supplier negotiations; and simplifying and improving operations by standardizing processes, streamlining systems and reducing redundancies.