AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (AXP) Risk Factors

Recent key developments

Concrete developments — dated events, named agreements and instruments, legal proceedings — that AMERICAN EXPRESS CO surfaced in its latest filing.

• We exited our business operations in Russia and Belarus as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• For the year ended December 31, 2025, cobrand portfolios in the aggregate accounted for approximately 26 percent of our worldwide billed business.2025
• Card Member loans related to our cobrand portfolios accounted for approximately 36 percent of our worldwide Card Member loans as of December 31, 2025.2025-12-31
• The two largest redemption partners are Amazon and Delta.
• Airline spending was at approximately 6% of worldwide billed business in 2025, exposing us to credit risk from protecting Card Members against non-delivery.2025
• Financial commitments related to agreements with cobrand partners are detailed in Note 12.
• Minority investment in GBTG and commercial arrangements with GBTG including a long-term trademark license agreement.
• We previously identified issues related to our rewards and benefits programs and took remediation actions.
• We exited our network licensing businesses in the EU and Australia due to regulation.
• In 2025 we entered into agreements to resolve governmental investigations related to historical sales practices for certain U.S. small business customers.2025
• We are a defendant in actions challenging provisions of our card acceptance agreements, including non-discrimination and honor-all-cards provisions.
• A lawsuit settlement agreement proposed by Visa and Mastercard in November 2025 would require reductions and caps on interchange fees, provide merchants greater options to impose a surcharge on credit transactions, and allow merchants to choose not to accept certain categories of credit cards.2025-11
• U.S. federal income tax audit of transfer pricing arrangements between our U.S. and foreign subsidiaries (Note 19).
• OECD global minimum tax of 15 percent on global profits increased our tax liability in 2025 and is expected to continue to increase it in 2026.2025
• As of December 31, 2025, U.S. Card Members were responsible for approximately 79 percent of our total Card Member loans and receivables outstanding.2025-12-31
• Net interest income of approximately $17.4 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025.2025-12-31
• During 2025, approximately 22 percent of our total revenues net of interest expense were generated from activities outside the United States.2025
• As of December 31, 2025, the company held approximately $1.0 billion of investment securities, primarily debt securities, and equity investments, including certain equity method investments, totaling approximately $2.4 billion.2025-12-31
• Adoption of the 2017 Basel Committee standards revisions to the standardized approach for credit risk and operational capital requirements could result in significantly higher regulatory capital requirements.