Business Summary and Brief History

Business summary and Brief History

In 1850, Henry Wells formed American Express along side the partnership of a few other competitors of the day. The delivery services company primarily worked in the eastern portion of the United States. When Wells suggested that the company extend west to California, the other executives declined. Henry Wells then partnered with William Fargo to form Wells Fargo and Co.

American Express continued with its pony express deliveries and had great success, becoming well known as a travel company. As early as 1891, American Express began issuing the first Traveler’s Checks. Even today the company may be the best known travel agent in the U.S. Although the company specialized in travel related products, over the years it has developed a wide array of financial services and conveniences. In the early 80’s the CEO, James Robinson, decided to fully enter the financial services market. The company struggled to keep up with Visa and Mastercard because of their inexperience with revolving charge cards. There was a short dispute with Visa over American Express siding with Advanta Corp. to offer special rewards to customers for using their Am. Express cards. Visa was losing customers to American Express and filed a law suit against American Express that would impede any company working with Visa from having relations with American Express. The disputes ended in 2001 with the courts upholding American Express. The two companies, along with Mastercard, have become top competitors in the credit and charge card industry.

American Express is now based in New York City and in 2004 had total sales revenue of $ 29,115,000,000 between all of its subsidiaries including its investment firm and travel services.

Below are some of the Executives of the company.

Chairman, Chief Exec. Officer : Mr. Kenneth I. Chenault

Chairman -American Express Financial Advisors: Mr. James M. Cracchiolo

Chief