American Express history

The company was a merger of the Wells Fargo company run by Henry Wells, William Fargo, and John Butterfield, which started in 1852, remaining in California, while American Express focused on New York.

In 1857, American Express launched the Overland Mail Co. as a joint venture with Wells Fargo, Adams Express Co., and United States Express Co.

Merchants Dispatch, created in 1858, proved immediately successful.

The Pony Express was created in 1860 to provide fast mail service across the western United States.

When the United States became divided during the Civil War (1861-65), American Express and all its sibling companies soon became heavily involved in shipping documents, supplies, and funds to soldiers throughout the nation.

The post office first introduced the postal money order in 1864.

By the end of the American Civil War, its business had so flourished, with some 900 offices in 10 states, that it attracted competition in 1866 in the formation of Merchants Union Express Company.

American Express suffered such losses in 1867 that for the first and only time in its history it failed to pay a dividend.

For two years the two companies engaged in cutthroat competition and, on the verge of financial exhaustion, finally merged on November 25, 1868, to form the American Merchants Union Express Company, with Fargo succeeding as president.

The company was renamed American Express Company in 1873.

In 1874, the United States Postal Service began to deliver packages at a new, low rate.

In 1878, American Express began introducing financial products to their business.

And in 1891, they introduced the Travelers Cheque, helping travelers feel more secure with their money.

The railroads had steadily eroded express profits by raising their rates from 40% of gross receipts to more than 55% by 1910.

In 1913, the United States Post Office again expanded parcel-delivery services at reduced rates, while the ICC set express rates that the industry feared were prohibitively low.

1915: American Express opens its Travel Department.

In 1927 Albert H. Wiggin, chairman of the Chase National Bank, started buying American Express stock through dummies.

American Express was especially attractive because its net income had more than doubled in the six years ending in 1928.

In 1929, Chase Securities Corp., an affiliate of Chase National Bank, acquired control of American Express in a stock exchange and Wiggin was elected first chairman of the American Express board.

In May 1930 Chase National merged with the giant Equitable Trust Co. to become the largest bank in the world.

In early 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced a national bank holiday to allow banks to recover from the panic.

In 1958, since American Express had been highly successful with its Travelers Cheques, it started offering its customers a new form of non-cash funds with a small green plastic card.

They were the first in the industry to issue embossed plastic cards in 1959.

A new era of management began when Howard L. Clark was elected president and CEO on April 26, 1960.

When the field warehousing division was sold to Lawrence Warehouse Co. in 1963, Clark withheld the two most profitable accounts, Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Co. and Freezer House (both owned by Anthony 'Tino' De Angelis), pending an investigation of other field warehousing opportunities.

During the salad oil scandal, Buffett began his journey with American Express in 1964.

And in 1966, the company expanded its credit card offerings to commercial customers with their Corporate Card.

And in 1968, American Express made the most important purchase yet in its diversification strategy: the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, one of the largest property and casualty insurers in the nation.

1982: American Express is reorganized under American Express Corp.

That same year, American Express acquired Ayco Corp., a financial counseling firm, and in 1984 it bought Allegheny Corporation's principal subsidiary, the financial planning company Investors Diversified Services, Inc. (IDS). Also in 1984, Shearson acquired Lehman Bros.

The Year They Sold Wall Street, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1985.

Grossman, Peter Z., American Express: The Unofficial History of the People Who Built the Great Financial Empire, New York: Crown, 1987.

In 1988 its holding was reduced to 20% and American Express formally exited the insurance business.

At the end of 1989 Shearson was still struggling to cut costs and raise profits.

In April 1992, American Express spun off its former subsidiary, First Data Corp., in an initial public offering.

In 1993, American Express won the federal government’s travel and transportation payment system contract—the largest corporate card account in the world.

In 1994, American Express acquired two businesses from one of the world's oldest travel agencies, Thomas Cook, paying $375 million for the two Cook units.

In January 1995 the company launched ExpressNet, a web site dedicated to online cardmember and travel services.

Wells, Melanie. "AmEx Ads Will Push the Big Picture." USA Today, June 14, 1996.

"american express acquires accounting divisions." fox news network, 19 march 1997. availble at http://www.foxnews.com.

Greenwald, John. "Charge! American Express May Not Have the Cachet It Once Did, but Its Card Business Is Growing Again, Thanks to a Grittier Game Plan and No-Nonsense Management." Time, January 12, 1998.

In 1999 AmEx extended its association with Seinfeld.

"Tiger Practices for United States Open with AmEx Spot." Bank Advertising News, July 10, 2000.

The Seinfeld and other "Do More" spots aired through 2001, but AmEx, like many advertisers, struggled to find appropriate ways to promote itself in the somber months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Seinfeld and AmEx further collaborated on a well-received online campaign in 2004.

However, it was sold to Time Inc. in 2013.

In 2016, Amex accounted for 22.9% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US with 112.8 million cards issued.

And in response to international pressures and to attract more merchant partners, the company began lowering its discount rates in 2018.

In 2021, the company generated $5.19 billion in net card fees, good for 12% of the company’s overall revenues.