American Express is an integrated payments and banking company that issues cards, acquires merchants and operates a global network. It earns merchant transaction fees, membership fees and lending income, while providing rewards, travel, dining and business-payment services.
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A snapshot of what AMERICAN EXPRESS CO owns and owes at a point in time.
Read the company’s balance sheet in the original annual reports below.
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3 reports in this collection
| Report period | Filed with SEC | Form | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 31, 20230000004962-24-000013 | Feb 9, 2024 | 10-K | Open 10-Ksec.gov |
| Dec 31, 20240000004962-25-000016 | Feb 7, 2025 | 10-K | Open 10-Ksec.gov |
| Dec 31, 20250000004962-26-000080 | Feb 6, 2026 | 10-K | Open 10-Ksec.gov |
Dates describe the filing metadata. Figures and reporting periods should be checked against the original statement. SEC links open in a new tab.
American Express combines a premium membership franchise with substantial lending and funding obligations. In 2025, spending, card fees and interest income supported higher earnings, but customer-benefit costs grew faster than revenue. Developments after the February 6, 2026 annual filing require a more qualified reading: third-quarter profit benefited from the completed GBTG stake sale, credit-reserve releases and discrete tax benefits, alongside higher legal and restructuring costs. The company’s adjusted earnings remove only the disposal gain and restructuring charge—not every unusual item. Capital ratios remained above disclosed requirements, but bank resources are not freely transferable to the parent. October financial-crimes enforcement established serious compliance deficiencies and continuing remediation obligations. The proposed TheFork acquisition adds conditional cash commitments and integration risks, rather than established future earnings.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 10-Q · 2026-09-30 · EX-99.1 · 2026-10-23 · OCC CONSENT ORDER · 2026-10-08 · FEDERAL RESERVE CONSENT ORDER · 2026-10-08 · EX-10.1 · 2026-06-14
American Express is not simply a payment-network toll collector. Direct relationships with cardholders and merchants connect issuance, acceptance, underwriting, rewards and marketing. Merchant discount revenue is its largest revenue source, supplemented by annual card fees, lending interest and services. The company generally pays merchants before collecting from customers, creating a funding requirement. Its premium proposition depends on customers valuing benefits enough to retain fee-paying cards and direct spending to them; richer rewards, travel services and partner payments are therefore central operating costs, not incidental extras. Billed business measures transaction volume, including cash advances, rather than company revenue. Outstanding minimum-payment commitments to certain cobrand partners were approximately $14.0 billion at December 31, 2023, $12.9 billion at December 31, 2024 and $11.2 billion at December 31, 2025. These are successive dated balances, not additive obligations or a verified September 2026 balance. The underlying agreements generally run five to ten years. Payments based principally on Card Member spending, rewards earned and new-card acquisition generally satisfy the commitments; if they do not, American Express generally pays the shortfall up to the commitment in exchange for an equivalent value of reward points. The aggregate is not assigned to Delta or another individual partner and is not immediately payable debt or an expense to add mechanically to ordinary partner payments.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 10-K · 2023-12-31 · 10-K · 2024-12-31
For the year ended December 31, 2025, GAAP revenue net of interest expense reached $72.229 billion and net income $10.833 billion. Reported growth was 10% and 7%, respectively. Billed business grew 8%, premium-card expansion supported 18% card-fee growth, and revolving balances supported interest income. Merchant discount revenue grew more slowly than spending because geographic and merchant mix reduced average rates. Expenses increased 11%, including a 27% rise in Card Member services associated with benefit usage and refreshed U.S. Platinum products. Diluted EPS rose 10% to $15.38, helped by fewer shares. The comparison also lacked 2024’s $479 million after-tax Accertify sale gain; removing that item alone would not establish fully recurring earnings.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 10-K · 2024-12-31
Operating cash flow recovered to $18.428 billion in 2025 from $14.050 billion in 2024, supported partly by payment timing and higher book overdrafts. Separately, loan and receivable growth used $19.573 billion of investing cash, and net premises-and-equipment purchases used $2.425 billion. Deposit growth and net debt issuance helped fund these requirements. The same distinction matters in 2026: nine-month operating cash flow declined to $14.559 billion despite higher profit, while lending growth, securities purchases and capital investment absorbed cash. September 30 cash was $43.203 billion, including restricted amounts. Neither operating cash flow nor operating cash flow less ordinary capital expenditure represents unrestricted distributable cash for this lender.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 10-Q · 2026-09-30
American Express reported $7.6 billion of common-share repurchases and dividends in 2025 and $7.442 billion during the first nine months of 2026; these are separate periods, not amounts to combine. These company-reported capital-return measures should not be substituted for cash-flow-statement payments: declared common dividends and cash dividends paid can differ, and the cash-flow repurchase line also includes other items. The quarterly common dividend increased to $0.95 in 2026. At September 30, company CET1 was 10.9%, above its 7.0% effective minimum and within management’s 10–11% target. Category II status began in the second quarter, bringing heightened requirements with transition periods. A $3.5 billion draw on the $6 billion syndicated facility was subsequently repaid. Undrawn facilities are borrowing capacity, not cash, and bank liquidity generally cannot freely fund parent obligations. Capital allocation also operates alongside existing cobrand minimum-payment commitments, most recently quantified here at approximately $11.2 billion at December 31, 2025; these generally are satisfied through ordinary partner payments, with shortfalls generally purchasing equivalent reward points, rather than constituting an additional immediate cash call of the full disclosed balance.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 8-K · 2026-03-02 · EX-99.1 · 2026-06-25 · 10-Q · 2026-09-30 · 10-Q · 2026-03-31
Delta represented approximately 13% of worldwide billed business and 21% of Card Member loans in 2025; its cobrand agreement runs through 2029. Renewal competition can increase partner payments or threaten portfolios. Existing minimum-payment commitments to certain cobrand partners totaled approximately $11.2 billion at December 31, 2025, generally over five-to-ten-year agreements. Ordinary spending-, reward- and acquisition-linked payments generally satisfy them; shortfall payments generally obtain equivalent reward points. This aggregate is not a Delta-specific obligation or an additional immediate expense. Pre-purchased partner loyalty points can lose value if a partner ceases operations or becomes less attractive to customers, and merchant non-delivery or chargebacks can expose American Express to reimbursement losses after merchants have been paid. Premium-card competition, merchant steering and fee regulation can pressure revenue while rewards and servicing costs rise. Credit outcomes are also uneven: commercial loan losses worsened in 2025 despite stable consolidated rates, which does not establish deterioration across every commercial credit population. September 2026 disclosures additionally identified increased interest-rate-sensitive liabilities relative to assets and conditional vulnerability of net interest income to rising rates. On October 8, 2026, regulators imposed financial-crimes remediation orders and a single $350 million OCC penalty against American Express National Bank. No asset cap was imposed, but extensive corrective work remains required. Effective financial-reporting controls do not negate these separate operational-compliance deficiencies.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31 · 8-K · 2026-10-08 · OCC CONSENT ORDER · 2026-10-08 · FEDERAL RESERVE CONSENT ORDER · 2026-10-08 · OCC CIVIL MONEY PENALTY ORDER · 2026-10-08 · 10-K · 2024-12-31 · 10-Q · 2026-09-30
The unaudited September-quarter results, filed October 23, showed revenue of $20.062 billion, net income of $3.712 billion and diluted EPS of $5.42—reported increases of 9%, 28% and 31%. The September 29 GBTG stake disposal generated a $982 million pretax gain; restructuring cost $336 million. Excluding those two items, company-defined non-GAAP net income was $3.214 billion and EPS $4.68. Legal charges, reserve-model effects and discrete tax benefits remain in those adjusted measures. The quarter also contained a $235 million card-credit reserve release even though dollar write-offs increased. Management’s October outlook was 10% full-year revenue growth, GAAP EPS of $18.30–18.60 and adjusted EPS of $17.60–17.90. These are conditional forecasts, not annual results. TheFork remained proposed, while GBTG’s sale and the preferred-share refinancing had completed.
Sources: 10-Q · 2026-09-30 · EX-99.1 · 2026-10-23 · 8-K · 2026-10-23
USD 10.833 bn
FY2025 · GAAP · consolidated · Attribution: consolidated · Reported currency
| Fiscal year | Value | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | USD 10.833 bn | 7.0% |
| 2024 | USD 10.129 bn | 21.0% |
| 2023 | USD 8.374 bn | — |
Consolidated net income before preferred dividends and earnings allocated to participating share awards.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31
USD 18.428 bn
FY2025 · GAAP · consolidated · Attribution: consolidated · Reported currency
| Fiscal year | Value | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | USD 18.428 bn | 31.2% |
| 2024 | USD 14.05 bn | -24.3% |
| 2023 | USD 18.559 bn | — |
Consolidated operating cash flow; loan growth is principally investing and deposit growth is financing.
Sources: 10-K · 2025-12-31
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