American Express 2003 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2003 American Express annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 116

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116

New Proprietary Product Launches in International Markets
In our international card business, we launched more than 80 new or enhanced card products during 2003.
These are cards that American Express issued, either on our own or cobranded with partnering institutions.
They included Centurion cards in Mexico and Japan, the International Dollar Platinum Card in 43 Latin Amer-
ican and Caribbean markets, and several Gold card products in markets including India, Japan and Indonesia,
as well as cards with premier partners like Holt Renfrew in Canada, BMW in Australia and E-Plus in Germany.
We also introduced affinity cards for members of professional groups and organizations in Australia, Italy,
Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand and Thailand.
Rewards are a strong driver of cardmember spending internationally. We continued to enhance our rewards-
based products and programs across our international markets, including expanded Membership Rewards part-
nerships and offerings. Examples include the American Express Platinum Membership Rewards Credit Card in
New Zealand, the KLM Flying Dutchman American Express Card in the Netherlands and the American Express
AeroplanPlus cards with Aeroplan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada. We also introduced a rewards
“Accelerator” program in 10 markets that drives spending by enabling cardmembers to earn points faster.
Expanding GNS Partnerships
Our Global Network Services (GNS) business — where we partner with financial institutions that issue Amer-
ican Express-branded cards accepted on our merchant network — continued to grow rapidly in 2003. We
signed nine new GNS partnerships with financial institutions in 2003, bringing our total to 79 partners in 89
countries. Altogether, our GNS partners launched 30 new card products during the year.
GNS is an important strategic business that helps to increase our market presence, drive more transaction volume
onto our merchant network and increase the number of merchants accepting the American Express Card. Our
partners benefit by gaining attractive revenue streams, expanding and differentiating their product offerings
and associating with the American Express brand.
With more than 350 different card products launched so far, GNS partners have added 6.4 million cards to the
American Express network since we created this business in 1997. As this card base has grown, GNS merchant-
(p.12_axp)
NETWORK PARTNERS — Our historic card-issuing agreement with MBNA in the United States, announced in early 2004, is
the latest chapter in the Global Network Services success story. In its eight years, GNS has established partnerships with 79 card
issuers in 89 countries — including Alpha Bank in Greece, Banco Popular in Puerto Rico, Samsung in Korea and HSBC in Brazil.