American Express 2005 Annual Report Download - page 17

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Efforts like these helped us deepen relationships with our premium cardmembers and attract new ones to
the franchise.
Network Cards
Our fast-expanding Global Network Services (GNS) business also continued to gain momentum in 2005,
providing us with an additional — and increasingly strong — avenue for growth. Spending on cards issued
by our bank partners rose 36 percent globally, network cards-in-force rose 23 percent, and we signed a num-
ber of key issuers in the United States and in several international markets.
As 2005 drew to a close, we marked our first full year of operating our network business in the United States,
an option finally opened to us in October 2004 through a series of court rulings that barred the anticompetitive
practices of Visa and MasterCard. We moved quickly to capitalize on this opportunity, and our rapid progress
clearly illustrates the potential of GNS for both American Express and banks that issue cards on our network.
To date, we’ve signed seven leading U.S. card issuers: MBNA, Citibank, Bank of America, GE Money Bank,
HSBC Bank Nevada N.A., USAA Federal Savings Bank and Juniper Bank, a member of the Barclays Group.
Collectively, the annual billings of these institutions represent about half of the total for the top 100 bank card
issuers in the United States. We are confident that our value proposition will enable us to capture additional
spending on our network and attract more premium cardmembers to the franchise.
MBNA, our first U.S. bank partner, began issuing cards accepted on the American Express network in late
2004. Citibank launched its first cards this past December. With these cards in the marketplace and others in
the pipeline, our GNS business is off to a very promising start in the United States.
Outside the United States, we announced 13 new GNS deals — including those with Lloyds TSB in the United
Kingdom, Standard Chartered Bank in Asia, Banco Patagonia in Argentina and Shinhan Card in South Korea
— which brought our total worldwide to 97 relationships in 109 countries. We also marked historic card
launches in China and Russia with our partners Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Russian
Standard Bank, respectively, and positioned ourselves in two emerging markets that offer great potential.
Importantly, GNS enables us to enter new markets and expand our presence in others quickly and cost-
effectively, by leveraging our existing network and the distribution capabilities of banks with whom we partner.
AXP / AR.2005
[ 15 ]
NEW PRODUCTS
American Express continued to design
new products for attractive segments of
the card market. Our focus: providing
premium-value products and services to
high-spending cardmembers.