American Express 2004 Annual Report Download - page 21

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In Business Travel, we added more than $1.8 billion in sales volume from new accounts
during 2004. We also took major steps to restructure our Business Travel organization to
increase service levels and expand our product portfolio while lowering operating costs.
Some of these actions resulted in job eliminations as we increased efficiency and more vol-
umes shifted to online channels. However, the steps we have taken will strengthen our
position as the worldwide leader in business travel. We offer a wide array of business travel
management solutions to our clients, and we are the largest online provider of managed
business travel.
TRAVELERS CHEQUES AND PREPAID SERVICES
This year was also a turning point for our Travelers Cheque and Prepaid Services business.
We grew sales of paper Travelers Cheques for the first time in three years, due to the re-
bound in travel as well as targeted marketing programs and expanded distribution channels.
Travelers Cheque sales rose to $19.9 billion, up 3 percent from a year ago.
In addition, we made major progress in our prepaid card business. We see significant poten-
tial for growth in this category, which is high on our list of expanded opportunities. In 2004,
we focused on increasing sales of American Express Gift Cards and introducing the Trav-
elers Cheque Card, a prepaid alternative to the traditional paper-based Travelers Cheque.
Gift Card sales tripled from the prior year, and the average amount loaded on our Gift Cards
was nearly 70 percent higher than the store-specific cards we track. We launched a new
Gift Card in Japan and introduced the Travelers Cheque Card in Germany. We also
expanded the distribution network for prepaid cards with more than 12,000 new locations,
including banks, malls, drugstores and supermarkets.
AMERICAN EXPRESS FINANCIAL ADVISORS
American Express Financial Advisors is a diversified financial services company that helps
individuals, businesses and institutions meet their financial goals through asset manage-
ment and insurance products and services, and relationships built around financial planning
and advice. AEFA’s field force of more than 12,000 financial advisors is one of the largest
in the United States, with more certified financial plannerTM professionals than any other com-
pany. At the end of 2004, AEFA had more than $410 billion in assets owned, managed and
administered; and over $145 billion in life insurance in force.
AEFA’s strategy focuses on building relationships with high-value clients in the mass afflu-
ent segment: individuals with $100,000 to $1 million in investable assets. This group is
generally under-served in the market, and AEFA’s planning and advice-based approach
allows it to profitably provide high-touch service to them.
AXP
AR.04
—
19
Our Innovations. We continued to create more value for our customers by
introducing unique products and services in 2004. In our U.S. consumer card
business, for example, we introduced the IN:NYC credit card, customized with
benefits just for New Yorkers. We also began to expand the availability of
ExpressPay, our contactless payment product, to consumers nationwide.