as nyse axp dow jones industrial average component s & p 500 component 1 industry banking financial services predecessor livingston fargo & company wells butterfield & company wells & company 2 3 founded march 18 1850 ; 166 years ago 1850 03 18 buffalo new york u.s. headquarters three world financial center new york city new york u.s. area served worldwide key people kenneth chenault chairman & ceo 4 products charge cards credit cards traveler s cheque services finance insurance travel revenue us 34.44 billion 2015 5 operating income us 7.93 billion 2015 5 net income us 5.16 billion 2015 5 total assets us 161.0 billion 2015 5 total equity us 21.0 billion 2015 5 number of employees 54 000 2015 5 website www.americanexpress.com the american express company also known as amex is an american multinational financial services corporation headquartered in manhattan s three world financial center in new york city united states . founded in 1850 it is one of the 30 components of the dow jones industrial average . 6 the company is best known for its credit card charge card and traveler s cheque businesses . amex cards account for approximately 24 % of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the us . 7 8 businessweek and interbrand ranked american express as the 22nd most valuable brand in the world estimating the brand to be worth us 14.97 billion . 9 fortune listed amex as one of the top 20 most admired companies in the world . 10 the company s logo adopted in 1958 is a centurion 11 whose image appears on the company s traveler s cheques charge cards and credit cards . contents 1 early history 1.1 american express buildings 1.2 nationwide expansion 1.3 financial services 1.4 loss of railroad express business 1.5 investment banking 2 recent history 2.1 charge card services 2.2 boston fee party 2.3 cable tv 2.4 conversion to bank holding company 2.5 controversy in the uk 2.6 acquisition of loyalty partner 2011 2.7 costco trueearnings card 3 business model 3.1 typical credit card business model 4 card products 4.1 consumer cards 4.2 card design 4.2.1 expresspay 4.3 small business services also known as american express open 4.4 commercial cards and services 4.5 non proprietary cards 4.6 merchant account 5 non card products 5.1 traveler s checks 5.2 shearson american express 5.3 financial advisors 5.4 travel 5.5 publishing 5.6 individual banking 6 advertising 6.1 don t leave home without them 6.2 the adventures of seinfeld & superman 6.3 my life . my card . 6.4 c f. frost 6.5 cause marketing 6.6 animals 7 workplace 7.1 offices 7.2 job satisfaction 8 management and corporate governance 9 in popular culture 10 see also 11 references 12 external links early history edit american express co. shipping receipt new york city to st. louis mo august 6 1860 in 1850 american express was started as an express mail business in buffalo new york . 12 it was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by henry wells wells & company william g. fargo livingston fargo & company and john warren butterfield wells butterfield & company the successor earlier in 1850 of butterfield wasson & company . 2 3 wells and fargo also started wells fargo & co. in 1852 when butterfield and other directors objected to the proposal that american express extend its operations to california . american express initially established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of jay street and hudson street in what was later called the tribeca section of manhattan . for years it enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the movement of express shipments goods securities currency etc. throughout new york state . in 1874 american express moved its headquarters to 65 broadway in what was becoming the financial district of manhattan a location it was to retain through two buildings . 13 american express buildings edit in 1854 the american express co. purchased a lot on vesey street in new york city as the site for its stables . the company s first new york headquarters was an 1858 marble italianate palazzo at 55 61 hudson street which had a busy freight depot on the ground story with a spur line from the hudson river railroad . a stable was constructed in 1867 five blocks north at 4 8 hubert street . the company prospered sufficiently that headquarters were moved in 1874 from the wholesale shipping district to the budding financial district and into rented offices in two five story brownstone commercial buildings at 63 and 65 broadway that were owned by the harmony family . 14 in 1880 american express built a new warehouse behind the broadway building at 46 trinity place . the designer is unknown but it has a fa ade of brick arches that are redolent of pre skyscraper new york . american express has long been out of this building but it still bears a terracotta seal with the american express eagle . 15 in 1890 91 the company constructed a new ten story building by edward h. kendall on the site of its former headquarters on hudson street . by 1903 the company had assets of some 28 million second only to the national city bank of new york among financial institutions in the city . to reflect this the company purchased the broadway buildings and site . 14 the american express company building at 65 broadway the former headquarters of the american express company at the end of the wells fargo reign in 1914 an aggressive new president george chadbourne taylor 1868 1923 who had worked his way up through the company over the previous thirty years decided to build a new headquarters . the old buildings dubbed by the new york times as among the ancient landmarks of lower broadway were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern . after some delays due to the war in europe the 21 story neo classical american express co. building was constructed in 1916 17 to the design of james l. aspinwall of the firm of renwick aspinwall & tucker the successor to the architectural practice of the eminent james renwick jr. . the building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address 65 broadway . this building was part of the express row section of lower broadway at the time . the building completed the continuous masonry wall of its block front and assisted in transforming broadway into the canyon of neo classical masonry office towers familiar to this day 16 american express sold this building in 1975 but retained travel services there . the building was also the headquarters over the years of other prominent firms including investment bankers j. & w. seligman & co. 1940 74 the american bureau of shipping a maritime concern 1977 86 and currently j.j. kenny and standard & poor s who has renamed the building for itself . 14 16 nationwide expansion edit american express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other express companies including wells fargo the replacement for the two former companies that merged to form american express railroads and steamship companies . 13 financial services edit in 1882 american express started its expansion in the area of financial services by launching a money order business 13 to compete with the united states post office s money orders . sometime between 1888 and 1890 j. c. fargo took a trip to europe and returned frustrated and infuriated . despite the fact that he was president of american express and that he carried with him traditional letters of credit he found it difficult to obtain cash anywhere except in major cities . fargo went to marcellus flemming berry and asked him to create a better solution than the letter of credit . berry introduced the american express traveler s cheque which was launched in 1891 in denominations of 10 20 50 and 100 . 17 traveler s cheques established american express as a truly international company . in 1914 at the onset of world war i american express in europe was among the few companies to honor the letters of credit issued by various banks held by americans in europe because other financial institutions refused to assist these stranded travelers . the british government appointed american express its official agent at the beginning of world war i. they were to deliver letters money and relief parcels to british prisoners of war . their employees went into camps to cash drafts for both british and french prisoners and arranged for them to recive money from home . by the end of the war they were delivering 150 tonnes of parcels per day to prisoners in six countries . 18 loss of railroad express business edit american express became one of the monopolies that president theodore roosevelt had the interstate commerce commission icc investigate during his administration . the interest of the icc was drawn to its strict control of the railroad express business . however the solution did not come immediately to hand . 13 the solution to this problem came as a coincidence to other problems during world war i. during the winter of 1917 the united states suffered a severe coal shortage and on december 26 president woodrow wilson commandeered the railroads on behalf of the united states government to move federal troops their supplies and coal . treasury secretary william gibbs mcadoo was assigned the task of consolidating the railway lines for the war effort . all contracts between express companies and railroads were nullified and mcadoo proposed that all existing express companies be consolidated into a single company to serve the country s needs . this ended american express s express business and removed them from the icc s interest . the result was that a new company called the american railway express agency formed in july 1918 . the new entity took custody of all the pooled equipment and property of existing express companies the largest share of which 40 % came from american express who had owned the rights to the express business over 71 280 miles 114 710 km of railroad lines and had 10 000 offices with over 30 000 employees . investment banking edit during the 1980s american express embarked on an effort to become a financial services supercompany and made a number of acquisitions to create an investment banking arm . in mid 1981 it purchased sanford i. weill s shearson loeb rhoades the second largest securities firm in the united states to form shearson american express . shearson lehman logo after the purchase of shearson weill was given the position of president of american express in 1983 . weill grew increasingly unhappy with responsibilities within american express and his conflicts with american express ceo james d. robinson iii . weill soon realized that he was not positioned to be named ceo and left in august 1985 . in 1984 american express acquired the investment banking and trading firm lehman brothers kuhn loeb and added it to the shearson family creating shearson lehman american express . it was lehman s ceo and former trader lewis glucksman who would next lead shearson lehman american express . in 1984 shearson american express purchased the 90 year old investors diversified services bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products . in 1988 shearson lehman acquired e.f. hutton & co. a brokerage firm founded in 1904 this was merged with the investment banking business and the investment banking arm was renamed shearson lehman hutton inc. 19 however when harvey golub became ceo of american express in 1993 american express decided to get out of the investment banking business and negotiated the sale of shearson s retail brokerage and asset management business to primerica . the shearson business was merged with primerica s smith barney to create smith barney shearson .