AmEx notches record card spending in sign of a consumer comeback
BNN Bloomberg
Consumers are back -- at least based on how they’re using their AmEx cards.
Consumers are back -- at least based on how they’re using their AmEx cards.
Billed business, a measure of spending on American Express Co. cards, reached a record US$280 billion in the third quarter, driven by an uptick in goods-and-services purchases, which includes things like clothing, electronics and home-improvement projects. Such spending rose about 18 per cent from a year earlier, but it’s also up 19 per cent from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic took hold.
Consumers also are slowly getting back to the skies and on the road. Spending on travel and entertainment by individual consumers and businesspeople was up a whopping 124 per cent from a year ago, though it’s still down about 29 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.
“The growth momentum is fueled by robust spending by consumers and small businesses on goods and services,” Chief Financial Officer Jeff Campbell said in an interview Friday after AmEx announced its results. “In consumer, in particular, that spending is fueled by our millennial and Gen Z cardmembers.”
The increase in spending helped boost AmEx’s overall revenue to US$10.93 billion, topping the US$10.54 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
