American ExpressAXP

01Net card fees grew 15 percent, reflecting high levels of new card acquisitions, strong Card Member retention and our ongoing cycle of product refreshes U.S. Consumer Services billed business grew 11 percent, driven by our premium card portfolios, including the acceleration in the U.S. Platinum portfolio following the refresh last year We continue to see strong engagement from our younger customers, with continued momentum in spending by Millennial and Gen-Z Card Members, our largest and fastest-growing cohort The net write-off rate — principal only of 2.0 percent remained stable while the delinquency rate declined to 1.2 percent, reflecting our strategy to invest in the value propositions of our premium products that attract customers with high credit quality

02Owning the closed-loop network (issuing, acquiring, processing on a single rail) allows Amex to capture discount revenue directly from merchant spend rather than splitting interchange with separate acquirers and issuers. This integrated model concentrates economics on premium spend and provides superior transaction-level data for credit decisioning. The thesis breaks if merchant discount rate compression accelerates faster than volume growth.

03As of June 30, 2026, our direct deposit program had approximately 4.3 million accounts As of June 30, 2026, approximately 92 percent of these deposits were insured We believe our funding mix, including the proportion of U.S. direct deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to total funding, should reduce the impact that credit rating downgrades would have on our funding capacity and costs As of June 30, 2026 and December 31, 2025, we had $157.0 billion and $152.5 billion, respectively, in deposits

04Consistent capital return at roughly 90%+ of net income, while maintaining CET1 within a tight 10-11% target, reflects disciplined capital allocation that compounds per-share value. The thesis depends on earnings remaining strong enough to fund both balance-sheet growth and elevated buybacks without breaching the CET1 floor.