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Report of Independent Registered
Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and Shareholders of
American Express Company
We have audited the accompanying consolidated bal-
ance sheets of American Express Company as of
December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the related consoli-
dated statements of income, shareholders’ equity, and
cash flows for each of the three years in the period
ended December 31, 2004. These financial statements
are the responsibility of the Company’s management.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these
financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the stan-
dards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (United States). Those standards require that we
plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assur-
ance about whether the financial statements are free of
material misstatement. An audit includes examining,
on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and
disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also
includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall financial statement presentation.
We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis
for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to
above present fairly, in all material respects, the con-
solidated financial position of American Express Com-
pany at December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the consoli-
dated results of its operations and its cash flows for
each of the three years in the period ended
December 31, 2004, in conformity with U.S. generally
accepted accounting principles.
As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial
statements, in 2004, the Company adopted the provi-
sions of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants Statement of Position 03-1, “Accounting
and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises for Certain Non-
traditional Long-Duration Contracts and for Separate
Accounts”. Additionally, in 2003, the Company adopted
the provisions of Financial Accounting Standards Board
Interpretation No. 46 (revised December 2003), “Con-
solidation of Variable Interest Entities”, and the fair value
recognition provisions of Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 123, “Accounting for
Stock-Based Compensation”, prospectively for all stock
options granted after December 31, 2002.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards
of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(United States), the effectiveness of American Express
Company’s internal control over financial reporting as
of December 31, 2004, based on criteria established in
Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by
the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the
Treadway Commission and our report dated February 18,
2005 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
New York, New York
February 18, 2005
AXP
AR.04
77
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm