American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), sometimes called the “Amex”, is a diversified global financial services based in New York. Founded in 1850, is one of the 30 Dow components. The company is known for his credit card, payment cards and travelers checks business. Amex represent about 24 percent of total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the U.S., the highest issuer of the card.
BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 15th most valuable brand in the world, estimating the brand value of 21.94 billion dollars. Amex Fortune as one of the top 30 most admired companies in the world.
In November 10, 2008, during the financial crisis of 2008, the company has won Federal Reserve approval to convert to a bank holding company, making it eligible for government assistance program under the Troubled Asset Relief . At that point, American Express had total consolidated assets of approximately $ 127 billion [5]. In June 2009, 3.39 billion in TARP funds have been paid and $ 74.4 million in dividend payments, and in July 2009, completed its obligations under TARP through the purchase of $ $ 340 bills.