American Express 2011 Annual Report Download - page 6

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 6 of the 2011 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 113

  • 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

slowed expense growth. Expenses rose by just 1percent in the fourth quarter,
compared with 13percent for the fullyear.
We will continue to focus on controlling expenses by driving eciency, reducing
costs and increasing quality throughout the organization, while still investing
at healthy levels to fuelgrowth.
Across our businesses, 2011 saw us reach some historic milestones. For
example,we:
• Received our fifth consecutive J.D. Power and Associates award for highest
customer satisfaction among credit card companies in the U.S.
• Passed the $100billion mark in annual billings on cards issued by Global
Network Services partners, a tremendous achievement for this business,
which has greatly expanded the presence of our brand in manycountries.
• Mobilized an estimated 103million Americans to shop small on the second
annual Small Business Saturday, a movement we created to support
independently owned stores and restaurants that are the lifeblood of local
communities across theU.S.
• Added more than 1 million card-accepting merchant locations to our
globalnetwork.
To Our Shareholders
Investments and
Eciency
Our Transformation
The Digital
Convergence
A Challenging
Environment
Thank You
Billed business rose 15 percent to a record $822 billion on broad-based growth in
spending among consumers, small businesses and corporations. Higher spending per card,
combined with an expanding cardmember base, drove the strong increase.
1110090807
$647
$683
$620
$7 1 3
$822
BILLED BUSINESS
(in billions)
10090807
86.4
92.4
87.9
91.0
CARDS-IN-FORCE
(in millions)
AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
4