American Express

“The development of agentic commerce solutions, in which autonomous or semi-autonomous AI agents initiate and execute transactions on behalf of users, has accelerated as generative AI technologies have advanced and become more popular. In addition, the use of stablecoins, which can be used for payments in a number of settings, including in e-commerce and cross-border and B2B payments, has grown.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The competitive value of our data and demand for our products and services may also be diminished as traditional and non-traditional competitors use other, new data sources and technologies, including generative AI, to derive similar insights and by certain regulations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, the regulatory environment and differentiated payment models and technologies from non-traditional players in the alternative payments space could pose challenges to our payment model and adversely impact our merchant discount rates. Some merchants, including large tech companies and other large merchants, continue to invest in their own payment and financing solutions, such as proprietary-branded digital wallets, using both traditional and new technology platforms. If merchants are able to drive broad consumer adoption and usage, it could adversely impact our merchant discount rates and network and loan volumes.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“These risks to our brand and reputation, as well as other risks described herein, are heightened by the increasing sophistication and availability of AI technology, including by assisting with the creation of deepfakes, increasing the velocity of distribution of disinformation and potentially altering the payments landscape in ways that disintermediate or create a negative perception of us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Incorporating new technologies into our products and services, including developing the appropriate governance and controls consistent with regulatory expectations, requires substantial expenditures and takes considerable time, and may have unintended consequences or ultimately be unsuccessful. We expect that new technologies in the payments industry will continue to emerge, and these new technologies may be superior to, or render obsolete, our existing technology.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The process of developing new products and services, enhancing existing products and services and adapting to technological changes and evolving industry standards is complex, costly and uncertain, and any failure by us to accurately anticipate and respond to customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends could significantly impede our ability to compete effectively. Our competitors may develop, or partner with companies that develop, products, platforms or technologies that become more widely adopted by consumers, merchants or service providers than ours, including as a result of increased involvement by technology companies in the payments industry and our competitors’ greater scale or ability to pursue and adopt new technologies.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The use of AI & ML technologies, including generative AI and agentic commerce, has increased rapidly and may be transformative to the payments industry, heightening the risks described herein and others in ways that may be unpredictable and disadvantageous to us. Our and our partners’ use of AI & ML is subject to various and evolving risks, including flaws in models or datasets that may result in biased or inaccurate results, especially as generative AI has been known to produce false or “hallucinatory” inferences or outputs. The use of AI may also result in unintended or unexpected outcomes, present significant ethical challenges and heighten risks related to information security, the infringement of intellectual property rights and exposure of proprietary or personal information.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We may also face challenges in our ability to safely deploy AI systems and implement appropriate governance and controls, which may not be as burdensome to our competitors, and which may impair our implementation or impose additional risks. The complexity of these technologies can make it difficult to assess proper operation, reduce error, or understand and explain their outputs. Adverse consequences of AI & ML remain uncertain but could include flaws in the decisions, predictions, outputs or analysis such technologies produce, subjecting us to competitive harm, legal liability, heightened regulatory scrutiny, greater prevalence of surcharging or other negative point-of-sale practices and brand or reputational harm, as well as decreased demand for our products and services or increased costs.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our ability to adopt new technologies may be inhibited by the emergence of industry-wide standards, a changing legislative and regulatory environment, an inability to develop appropriate governance and controls, a lack of internal product and engineering expertise, resistance to change from Card Members, merchants or service providers, lack of appropriate change management processes or the complexity of our systems. In addition, our adoption of new technologies and our introduction of new products and services may increase operational complexity and risk, and expose us to new or enhanced risks, particularly in areas where we have less experience or our existing governance and control systems may be insufficient, which could require us to make substantial expenditures or subject us to legal liability, heightened regulatory scrutiny and brand or reputational harm.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There are a number of motivations for cyber threat actors, including criminal activities such as fraud, identity theft and ransom, corporate or nation-state espionage, political agendas, public embarrassment with the intent to cause financial or reputational harm, intent to disrupt information technology systems and supply chains, and to expose and exploit potential security and privacy vulnerabilities in corporate systems and websites. Cyber threat actors have rapidly evolved their techniques and increasingly utilize advanced capabilities, including the exploitation of unknown security flaws in software and hardware and the integration of advanced forms of AI and other new technology, which can increase the efficacy, severity, frequency and ease of execution of cyberattacks. In addition, new computing technologies, such as quantum computing, may enable threat actors to compromise data encryption and other protective measures.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“New or emerging technologies, such as generative AI capabilities, have increased these fraud risks. For example, we have seen our customers targeted by elaborate and voluminous social engineering attacks, which may utilize advanced methods of deception, such as synthetic voice and conversation generation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, we increasingly use models that leverage AI, which are subject to additional risks such as biased or inaccurate results or lowered interpretability. The complexity of these models and our limited transparency into the AI may make it difficult to understand certain outputs or identify errors.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Furthermore, given intellectual property ownership and license rights surrounding AI, such as generative AI, are currently not fully addressed by courts or regulators, we may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights against infringing use and our use or adoption of AI may result in exposure to claims by third parties.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We rely on third-party service providers, cobrand partners, merchants, dining partners, affiliate marketing firms, merchant acquirers, processors, payment facilitators, network partners and other third parties for services that are integral to our operations and are subject to the risk that activities of such third parties may adversely affect our business. As outsourcing, specialization of functions, third-party digital services and technology innovation within the payments industry and related service functions increase (including with respect to mobile technologies, tokenization, big data, AI and cloud-based solutions), more third parties are involved in processing payment transactions, handling our data and supporting our operations and we may require significantly greater scale from these third parties.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Finally, we seek to reimagine our customer and colleague experiences to drive innovation, improve productivity and efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our industry is subject to rapid and significant technological changes. In order to compete in our industry, we need to continue to invest in technology across all areas of our business, including in transaction processing, data management and analytics, AI & ML (including agentic commerce), customer interactions and communications, open banking and alternative payment and financing mechanisms (including related to digital currencies and blockchain technologies), authentication technologies and digital identification, tokenization, real-time settlement and risk management and compliance systems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Strategic and Reputational Risks Macroeconomic conditions are a major driver of our results of operations and changes in the business and economic environment may materially adversely affect our business. We offer a broad array of products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations and thus are very dependent upon the level of consumer and business activity and the demand for payment and financing products. Slow economic growth, economic contraction, persistent inflationary pressures or shifts in broader consumer and business trends can significantly impact customer behaviors, including spending on our cards, the ability and willingness of Card Members to borrow and pay amounts owed to us, demand for fee-based products and services and levels of customers’ deposits with us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Spending by our premium consumer Card Members, for example, is sensitive to personal discretionary spending levels and tends to decline during general economic downturns.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We face continued intense competitive pressure that may materially impact the prices we charge for accepting our cards for payment, as well as the risk of losing merchant relationships, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations. We face pressure from competitors that primarily rely on sources of revenue other than discount revenue or have lower costs that can make their pricing for card acceptance more attractive. Merchants, business partners and third-party merchant acquirers, processors and payment facilitators are also able to negotiate incentives, pricing concessions and other favorable contractual provisions from us as a condition to accepting our cards, being cobrand partners, offering benefits to our Card Members or signing merchants to accept American Express cards.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our merchant discount rates have been impacted by regulatory changes affecting competitor pricing in certain international countries and U.S. states, as well as litigation related to pricing, and may in the future be impacted by pricing regulation and litigation. We have also experienced erosion of our merchant discount rates as we increase merchant acceptance.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We generally do not prohibit surcharging in our agreements with merchants so long as it is permitted by law and a merchant does not discriminate against American Express cards by engaging in differential surcharging. Table of Contents American Express cards could become less desirable to consumers and businesses generally due to surcharging, steering or other forms of discrimination, which could result in a decrease in cards-in-force, coverage and transaction volumes, including as a result of related actions we may take to enforce our merchant contractual provisions such as terminating merchant contracts.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Revenue growth is dependent on increasing consumer and business spending on our cards, growing loan balances and increasing fee revenue. We have been investing in a number of growth initiatives, including to attract new Card Members, retain existing Card Members, grow merchant acceptance and capture a greater share of customers’ total spending and borrowings. We have also introduced complementary products, such as travel and dining platforms, checking accounts, debit cards and expense management tools.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increasing spending on our cards also depends on our continued expansion of merchant acceptance of our cards. If we are unable to continue growing merchant acceptance and perceptions of coverage, or if merchants decide to no longer accept American Express cards or more greatly engage in surcharging, steering or other differential acceptance practices, our business could suffer.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our brand and reputation are key assets of our Company, and our business may be materially affected by how we are perceived in the marketplace. Our brand and its attributes are key assets, and we believe our continued success depends on our ability to preserve, grow and realize the benefits of the value of our brand. Our ability to attract and retain consumer and small business Card Members and corporate clients is highly dependent upon the external perceptions of our level of service, trustworthiness, business practices, fraud prevention, privacy and data protection, management, workplace culture, merchant acceptance, financial condition, response to political and social issues or catastrophic events and other subjective qualities.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our range of products and services includes: •Credit and charge cards and complementary products and services, including travel, dining, lifestyle and expense management products and services •Banking and other payment and financing products and services, including deposits and non-card lending •Merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, fraud prevention, and point-of-sale marketing and information products and services •Network services These products and services are offered through various channels, including mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, in-house sales teams, direct mail, telephone and direct response advertising.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our ability to adopt new technologies may be inhibited by the emergence of industry-wide standards, a changing legislative and regulatory environment, an inability to develop appropriate governance and controls, a lack of internal product and engineering expertise, resistance to change from Card Members, merchants or service providers, lack of appropriate change management processes or the complexity of our systems. In addition, our adoption of new technologies and our introduction of new products and services may increase operational complexity and risk, and expose us to new or enhanced risks, particularly in areas where we have less experience or our existing governance and control systems may be insufficient, which could require us to make substantial expenditures or subject us to legal liability, heightened regulatory scrutiny and brand or reputational harm.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The uninterrupted operation of our information systems is critical to our success and a significant disruption could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. We rely extensively on our information technology systems and those of our third parties, including our transaction authorization, clearing and settlement systems, data centers and cloud data storage and processing services, which have experienced and may continue to experience service disruptions or degradation that may result from technology malfunction, sudden increases in 29 Table of Contents processing or other volumes, natural disasters and weather events, fires, accidents, technology change management issues, power outages, internet outages, telecommunications failures, fraud, denial-of-service, ransomware and other cyberattacks, inadequate infrastructure in lesser-developed markets, technology capacity management issues, terrorism, computer viruses, vulnerabilities or failures in hardware or software, physical or electronic break-ins, or other operational issues or similar events.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Due to the interconnectivity and complexity of information systems and their reliance on common systems, software and vendors (e.g., large technology and cloud-service providers), disruptions or degradations have had, and will likely continue to have, wide-reaching consequences, including the potential to disrupt the overall financial system and other key systems in the global economy. Service disruptions or degradations impacting us or our partners can prevent access to online services and account information, compromise or limit access to company or customer data, impede or prevent transaction processing, communications to customers and financial reporting, disrupt ordinary business operations, result in contractual penalties or obligations, trigger regulatory reporting obligations, and lead to regulatory investigations and fines, increased regulatory oversight, and litigation (including class action litigation). Any such service disruption or degradation could adversely affect the perception of the reliability of our products and services and materially adversely affect our overall business, reputation and results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Such disruptions, operational issues, control and process weaknesses or other events could interrupt or compromise the quality of our services to customers, impact the confidentiality, integrity, availability and security of our data, lead to fraudulent transactions on our cards or other products, impact our business, cause brand or reputational damage, and lead to costs associated with responding to a disruption, including notification and remediation costs, costs to switch service providers or move operations in house, regulatory investigations and fines and increased regulatory oversight and litigation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We rely on third-party service providers, cobrand partners, merchants, dining partners, affiliate marketing firms, merchant acquirers, processors, payment facilitators, network partners and other third parties for services that are integral to our operations and are subject to the risk that activities of such third parties may adversely affect our business. As outsourcing, specialization of functions, third-party digital services and technology innovation within the payments industry and related service functions increase (including with respect to mobile technologies, tokenization, big data, AI and cloud-based solutions), more third parties are involved in processing payment transactions, handling our data and supporting our operations and we may require significantly greater scale from these third parties.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our industry is subject to rapid and significant technological changes. In order to compete in our industry, we need to continue to invest in technology across all areas of our business, including in transaction processing, data management and analytics, AI & ML (including agentic commerce), customer interactions and communications, open banking and alternative payment and financing mechanisms (including related to digital currencies and blockchain technologies), authentication technologies and digital identification, tokenization, real-time settlement and risk management and compliance systems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We face intense competition in the premium space and for cobrand relationships, as both card issuer and network competitors have targeted high-spending customers and key business partners with attractive value propositions. For example, there is heightened competition with respect to several aspects of our Card Member value propositions, such as in partnerships and other differentiated offerings (e.g., lounge space in U.S. and global hub airports, dining experiences and other experiential offerings).”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Our Business Strategies We seek to grow our business by focusing on five strategic imperatives: First, we aim to expand our leadership in the premium consumer space by continuing to deliver membership benefits that span our customers’ everyday spending, borrowing, travel and lifestyle needs, expanding our roster of business partners around the globe and developing a range of experiences that attract high-spending customers.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Card Issuing Businesses We are a leader in providing general purpose credit and charge cards to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations. We offer a broad set of card products, rewards and services to this premium consumer and broad commercial customer base, in the United States and internationally, through our USCS, CS and ICS reportable operating segments.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Open banking initiatives, including those promoted by governments and regulators, may result in a number of challenges to our business model, such as disintermediating us from our customers, steering customers away from our products and services or decreasing our attractiveness to partners.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Incorporating new technologies into our products and services, including developing the appropriate governance and controls consistent with regulatory expectations, requires substantial expenditures and takes considerable time, and may have unintended consequences or ultimately be unsuccessful. We expect that new technologies in the payments industry will continue to emerge, and these new technologies may be superior to, or render obsolete, our existing technology.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Finally, we seek to reimagine our customer and colleague experiences to drive innovation, improve productivity and efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our industry is subject to rapid and significant technological changes. In order to compete in our industry, we need to continue to invest in technology across all areas of our business, including in transaction processing, data management and analytics, AI & ML (including agentic commerce), customer interactions and communications, open banking and alternative payment and financing mechanisms (including related to digital currencies and blockchain technologies), authentication technologies and digital identification, tokenization, real-time settlement and risk management and compliance systems.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Because we derive a portion of our revenues from travel-related spending and many of our partners’ businesses relate to travel, our business is sensitive to impacts to travel and tourism, such as health and safety concerns and limitations on travel and mobility.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Delta is our largest strategic partner. Our relationships with, and revenues and expenses related to, Delta are significant and represent an important source of value for our Card Members. We issue cards under cobrand arrangements with Delta and the Delta cobrand portfolio continued to represent approximately 13 percent of worldwide billed business and approximately 21 percent of worldwide Card Member loans as of December 31, 2025.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, we are exposed to credit risk in the airline industry to the extent we protect Card Members against non-delivery of purchases, such as where we have remitted payment to an airline for a Card Member purchase of tickets that have not yet been used or “flown.” If we are unable to collect the amount from the airline, we may bear the loss for the amount credited to the Card Member. Spending at airline merchants accounted for approximately 6 percent of our worldwide billed business for the year ended December 31, 2025.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Second, we seek to build on our strong position in commercial payments by evolving our card value propositions, further differentiating our corporate card and accounts payable expense management solutions and designing innovative products and features, including financing, banking and payment solutions for our business customers.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our range of products and services includes: •Credit and charge cards and complementary products and services, including travel, dining, lifestyle and expense management products and services •Banking and other payment and financing products and services, including deposits and non-card lending •Merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, fraud prevention, and point-of-sale marketing and information products and services •Network services These products and services are offered through various channels, including mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, in-house sales teams, direct mail, telephone and direct response advertising.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Card Issuing Businesses We are a leader in providing general purpose credit and charge cards to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations. We offer a broad set of card products, rewards and services to this premium consumer and broad commercial customer base, in the United States and internationally, through our USCS, CS and ICS reportable operating segments.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Second, we seek to build on our strong position in commercial payments by evolving our card value propositions, further differentiating our corporate card and accounts payable expense management solutions and designing innovative products and features, including financing, banking and payment solutions for our business customers.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our range of products and services includes: •Credit and charge cards and complementary products and services, including travel, dining, lifestyle and expense management products and services •Banking and other payment and financing products and services, including deposits and non-card lending •Merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, fraud prevention, and point-of-sale marketing and information products and services •Network services These products and services are offered through various channels, including mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, in-house sales teams, direct mail, telephone and direct response advertising.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Card Issuing Businesses We are a leader in providing general purpose credit and charge cards to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations. We offer a broad set of card products, rewards and services to this premium consumer and broad commercial customer base, in the United States and internationally, through our USCS, CS and ICS reportable operating segments.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“A portion of our outstanding U.S. retail deposits are considered brokered deposits for bank regulatory purposes.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our U.S. bank subsidiary, AENB, accepts deposits and uses the proceeds as a source of funding, with our direct retail deposits becoming a larger proportion of our funding over time.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents SUPERVISION AND REGULATION Overview We are subject to evolving and extensive government regulation and supervision in jurisdictions around the world, and the costs of ongoing compliance are substantial.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, legislators and regulators in various countries in which we operate have focused on the offering of consumer financial products and the operation of payment networks, resulting in changes to certain practices or pricing of card issuers, merchant acquirers and payment networks, and, in some cases, the establishment of broad and ongoing regulatory oversight regimes.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Regulatory and legislative changes may also significantly alter the competitive landscape, including by facilitating alternative payment or financing mechanisms, such as recent legislation in the U.S. establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins, or by imposing constraints on payment or financing mechanisms, such as proposals to cap credit card interest rates.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In the United States, our marketing, sale and servicing of consumer financial products and our compliance with certain federal consumer financial laws are supervised and examined by the CFPB, which has broad rulemaking and enforcement authority over providers of credit, savings and payment services and products, and authority to prevent “unfair, deceptive or abusive” acts or practices. The CFPB has the authority to write regulations under federal consumer financial protection laws, to enforce those laws and to examine for compliance.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Pricing for card acceptance, including interchange fees (that is, the fee paid by the bankcard merchant acquirer to the card issuer in payment networks like Visa and Mastercard), has been a focus of legislators and regulators in Australia, Canada, the EU, the United States and other jurisdictions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Among other things, regulation of bankcard fees has negatively impacted, and may continue to negatively impact, the discount revenue we earn, including as a result of downward pressure on our merchant discount rates from decreases in competitor pricing in connection with caps on interchange fees.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In jurisdictions allowing surcharging, we have seen an increase in merchant surcharging on American Express cards, particularly in certain merchant categories. Surcharging is an adverse customer experience and could have a material adverse effect on us, particularly where it only or disproportionately impacts credit card usage or card usage generally, our Card Members or our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Compliance risk arises from violations of, or failure to conform or comply with, laws and/or regulations, internal policies and procedures and related practices, or ethical standards. We need to continually update and enhance our control environment to address operational and compliance risks, and our control environment and related systems have in certain instances not sufficiently detected, and may in the future not sufficiently detect, errors or omissions. Operational and compliance failures, deficiencies in our control environment or an inability to maintain high standards of business conduct can expose us to reputational and legal risks as well as fines, civil money penalties or payment of damages and can lead to diminished business opportunities and diminished ability to expand key operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We face heightened and evolving regulatory expectations and scrutiny in the U.S. and globally, which significantly affects our business and requires continual enhancement of our compliance efforts. Supervision efforts and the enforcement of existing laws and regulations impact the scope and profitability of our existing business activities, limit our ability to pursue certain business opportunities and adopt new technologies, compromise our competitive position (particularly where we may be treated differently from our competitors), and affect our relationships with Card Members, partners, merchants, service providers and other third parties.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“This focus has included fees, interest rates and rewards associated with card and banking products, such as recent proposals to cap credit card interest rates.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Any new requirements or increased enforcement of existing requirements could materially and adversely impact our revenue growth and profitability, including, as a result of increased scrutiny of our pricing, underwriting and account management practices; the imposition of fines and customer remediation; higher compliance costs; reputational harm; impacts to our ability to issue cards or extend credit to current and prospective Card Members, appropriately price for the value of our products or work with certain business partners; and changes to our business practices generally.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“As regulators increase their focus with respect to these financial crimes laws, new technologies such as digital currencies develop, near real-time money movement solutions are adopted, we introduce new products and geopolitical tensions increase, we face increased costs related to oversight, supervision and potential fines.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Compliance with current or future laws in the aforementioned areas could significantly impact our business operations, including our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of consumer, partner and/or colleague information and could restrict our ability to fully maximize our integrated payments platform or provide certain products and services or work with certain service providers, which could materially and adversely affect our profitability.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, guidelines issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development introduced a global minimum tax of 15 percent on the global profits of multinational enterprises, such as us. The global minimum tax increased our tax liability in 2025 as it came into effect in various jurisdictions where we operate and we expect the global minimum tax will continue to increase our tax liability in 2026 if it continues to be in effect in its current form.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, a decrease in confidence in the soundness of us or in the banking sector more broadly, such as following the occurrence of bank failures, or in the level of insurance available on deposits may cause rapid deposit withdrawals or an unwillingness to maintain deposits with us, which could materially adversely affect us and our ability to fund our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Strategic and Reputational Risks Macroeconomic conditions are a major driver of our results of operations and changes in the business and economic environment may materially adversely affect our business. We offer a broad array of products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies and large corporations and thus are very dependent upon the level of consumer and business activity and the demand for payment and financing products. Slow economic growth, economic contraction, persistent inflationary pressures or shifts in broader consumer and business trends can significantly impact customer behaviors, including spending on our cards, the ability and willingness of Card Members to borrow and pay amounts owed to us, demand for fee-based products and services and levels of customers’ deposits with us.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Likewise, spending by small business and corporate clients, which comprised approximately 41 percent of our worldwide billed business during 2025, depends in part on the economic environment and a favorable climate for continued business investment and new business formation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We face continued intense competitive pressure that may materially impact the prices we charge for accepting our cards for payment, as well as the risk of losing merchant relationships, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations. We face pressure from competitors that primarily rely on sources of revenue other than discount revenue or have lower costs that can make their pricing for card acceptance more attractive. Merchants, business partners and third-party merchant acquirers, processors and payment facilitators are also able to negotiate incentives, pricing concessions and other favorable contractual provisions from us as a condition to accepting our cards, being cobrand partners, offering benefits to our Card Members or signing merchants to accept American Express cards.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We generally do not prohibit surcharging in our agreements with merchants so long as it is permitted by law and a merchant does not discriminate against American Express cards by engaging in differential surcharging. Table of Contents American Express cards could become less desirable to consumers and businesses generally due to surcharging, steering or other forms of discrimination, which could result in a decrease in cards-in-force, coverage and transaction volumes, including as a result of related actions we may take to enforce our merchant contractual provisions such as terminating merchant contracts.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Revenue growth is dependent on increasing consumer and business spending on our cards, growing loan balances and increasing fee revenue. We have been investing in a number of growth initiatives, including to attract new Card Members, retain existing Card Members, grow merchant acceptance and capture a greater share of customers’ total spending and borrowings. We have also introduced complementary products, such as travel and dining platforms, checking accounts, debit cards and expense management tools.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our brand and reputation are key assets of our Company, and our business may be materially affected by how we are perceived in the marketplace. Our brand and its attributes are key assets, and we believe our continued success depends on our ability to preserve, grow and realize the benefits of the value of our brand. Our ability to attract and retain consumer and small business Card Members and corporate clients is highly dependent upon the external perceptions of our level of service, trustworthiness, business practices, fraud prevention, privacy and data protection, management, workplace culture, merchant acceptance, financial condition, response to political and social issues or catastrophic events and other subjective qualities.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Due to the interconnectivity and complexity of information systems and their reliance on common systems, software and vendors (e.g., large technology and cloud-service providers), disruptions or degradations have had, and will likely continue to have, wide-reaching consequences, including the potential to disrupt the overall financial system and other key systems in the global economy. Service disruptions or degradations impacting us or our partners can prevent access to online services and account information, compromise or limit access to company or customer data, impede or prevent transaction processing, communications to customers and financial reporting, disrupt ordinary business operations, result in contractual penalties or obligations, trigger regulatory reporting obligations, and lead to regulatory investigations and fines, increased regulatory oversight, and litigation (including class action litigation). Any such service disruption or degradation could adversely affect the perception of the reliability of our products and services and materially adversely affect our overall business, reputation and results of operations.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increased credit risk, whether resulting from underestimating the credit losses inherent in our portfolio of loans and receivables, deteriorating economic or political conditions (particularly in the United States, as U.S. Card Members were responsible for approximately 79 percent of our total Card Member loans and receivables outstanding as of December 31, 2025), increases in the level of loan and receivable balances, changes in our mix of business or otherwise, could require us to increase our provisions for losses and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our privacy and data protection programs have become the subject of heightened scrutiny and review in certain jurisdictions, including in the EU, and we continue to enhance our privacy program to comply with applicable requirements and regulatory expectations. Our compliance with the various and often diverging legal frameworks around privacy, data protection, AI, resiliency, information security and cybersecurity, as well as increased regulatory and legislative activity in these areas, may result in higher technology, administrative and other operational costs and hinder our ability to deploy and scale technology, innovate quickly and effectively utilize data.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“There are a number of motivations for cyber threat actors, including criminal activities such as fraud, identity theft and ransom, corporate or nation-state espionage, political agendas, public embarrassment with the intent to cause financial or reputational harm, intent to disrupt information technology systems and supply chains, and to expose and exploit potential security and privacy vulnerabilities in corporate systems and websites. Cyber threat actors have rapidly evolved their techniques and increasingly utilize advanced capabilities, including the exploitation of unknown security flaws in software and hardware and the integration of advanced forms of AI and other new technology, which can increase the efficacy, severity, frequency and ease of execution of cyberattacks. In addition, new computing technologies, such as quantum computing, may enable threat actors to compromise data encryption and other protective measures.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our and our partners’ networks and systems are subject to constant attempts to disrupt business operations and capture, destroy, manipulate or expose various types of information relating to corporate trade secrets, customer information (including Card Member, travel, dining and loyalty program data), colleague information and other sensitive business information (including acquisition activity, non-public financial results and intellectual property). For example, we and other U.S. financial services providers have been the target of attacks, such as denial-of-service attacks, social engineering and the impersonation of current or prospective employees and contractors, in some cases conducted by nation state-affiliated actors.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Risks associated with such incidents and activities include theft of funds and other monetary loss, disruption of our operations and the unauthorized disclosure, release, gathering, monitoring, misuse, modification, loss or destruction of confidential, proprietary, trade secret or other information (including account data information). An incident may not be detected until well after it occurs and the severity and potential impact may not be fully known for a substantial period of time after it has been discovered. We are subject to varied cybersecurity regulations and incident reporting requirements, which could require us to disclose incidents that may not have been resolved or fully investigated at the time of disclosure, leading to customer confusion, regulatory scrutiny and negative publicity and exacerbating risks related to the incident itself.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Information, operational or cybersecurity incidents and other actual or perceived failures to maintain confidentiality, integrity, availability of services and data, privacy and/or security has led to regulatory investigations and increased regulatory scrutiny and may lead to regulatory intervention (such as mandatory card reissuance), consent decrees, increased litigation (including class action litigation), response costs (including notification and remediation costs), fines, negative assessments of us and our subsidiaries by banking regulators and rating agencies, reputational and financial damage to our brand, negative impacts to our partner relationships, and reduced usage of our products and services, all of which could have a material adverse impact on our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Fraudulent activity associated with our products and services could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. We face risks from fraudulent activity associated with Card Members, merchants and others, including through bad actors obtaining access to our customer accounts and information and frauds committed by our customers against us. Large financial services firms such as American Express and our customers are regularly targeted by a range of fraudulent activity, including fraud on our card and banking products, false disputes, account takeovers, identity theft and electronic-transaction related crimes, with sophisticated perpetrators increasingly utilizing a range of advanced techniques and multiple parties acting in concert.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“New or emerging technologies, such as generative AI capabilities, have increased these fraud risks. For example, we have seen our customers targeted by elaborate and voluminous social engineering attacks, which may utilize advanced methods of deception, such as synthetic voice and conversation generation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business is subject to the effects of geopolitical conditions, weather, natural disasters and other catastrophic events. Geopolitical conditions, terrorist attacks, military conflicts, supply chain issues, natural disasters, severe weather, widespread health emergencies or pandemics, information or cybersecurity incidents (including intrusion into or degradation or unavailability of systems or technology by cyberattacks), operational incidents and other catastrophic events can have a material adverse effect on our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Political and social conditions, including geopolitical instability (such as from tensions involving China and the United States), fiscal and monetary policies (including developments related to the U.S. federal deficit, debt ceiling, government shutdowns and other budgetary issues), trade wars and tariffs, labor shortages, regional or domestic hostilities, economic sanctions and the prospect or occurrence of more widespread conflicts could also negatively affect our business, operations and partners, consumer and business spending, including travel patterns and business investment, and demand for credit.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Furthermore, as a corporation with headquarters and operations located in the United States and a brand name referring to the United States, a negative perception of the United States arising from its political or other positions could harm the perception of our company and our brand.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Political developments, including those relating to recent shifts in trade policy and heightened geopolitical tensions, have resulted in and may further result in an increase in the number, complexity and scope of laws and regulations, heightened legislative and regulatory uncertainty, changes to supervisory and enforcement priorities, and increased risk of fragmentation in global financial regulation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our ability to obtain financing in the capital markets, such as from unsecured term debt issuances and asset securitizations, is dependent on financial market conditions. Disruptions, uncertainty or volatility across the financial markets, as well as adverse developments affecting us, our competitors, the financial industry or the economy generally, could negatively impact market liquidity and limit our access to funding required to operate and grow our business and satisfy cash needs, maturing liabilities and regulatory capital requirements.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Any reduction in our credit ratings could increase the cost of our funding from, and restrict our access to, the capital markets and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Ratings of our long-term and short-term debt and deposits are based on a number of factors, including our financial strength, as well as factors not within our control, including conditions affecting the financial services industry, the U.S.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Market risk includes the loss in value of portfolios and financial instruments due to adverse changes in market variables, which could negatively impact our financial condition.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, the regulatory environment and differentiated payment models and technologies from non-traditional players in the alternative payments space could pose challenges to our payment model and adversely impact our merchant discount rates. Some merchants, including large tech companies and other large merchants, continue to invest in their own payment and financing solutions, such as proprietary-branded digital wallets, using both traditional and new technology platforms. If merchants are able to drive broad consumer adoption and usage, it could adversely impact our merchant discount rates and network and loan volumes.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The process of developing new products and services, enhancing existing products and services and adapting to technological changes and evolving industry standards is complex, costly and uncertain, and any failure by us to accurately anticipate and respond to customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends could significantly impede our ability to compete effectively. Our competitors may develop, or partner with companies that develop, products, platforms or technologies that become more widely adopted by consumers, merchants or service providers than ours, including as a result of increased involvement by technology companies in the payments industry and our competitors’ greater scale or ability to pursue and adopt new technologies.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our business is subject to the effects of geopolitical conditions, weather, natural disasters and other catastrophic events. Geopolitical conditions, terrorist attacks, military conflicts, supply chain issues, natural disasters, severe weather, widespread health emergencies or pandemics, information or cybersecurity incidents (including intrusion into or degradation or unavailability of systems or technology by cyberattacks), operational incidents and other catastrophic events can have a material adverse effect on our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We may face physical risks related to climate, including rising average global temperatures, rising sea levels and an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events and natural disasters. Such events and disasters could disrupt our operations or the operations of customers or third parties on which we rely and could result in market volatility or negatively impact our customers’ spending behaviors or ability to pay outstanding loans.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We had net interest income of approximately $17.4 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025. Changes in interest rates could adversely affect our net interest yield, and consequently our net interest income and results of operations, including if our borrowing costs and the interest we pay on deposits increase at a greater magnitude than the rate of interest we earn on our loans.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“In addition, interest rate changes or prolonged periods of elevated or depressed rates may affect customer behavior, such as by impacting the balances Card Members carry on their cards or their ability to make payments to us, general spending and economic activity, or the demand for deposit accounts.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Arrangements with our business partners represent a significant portion of our business. We are exposed to risks associated with our business partners, including reputational issues, business slowdowns, bankruptcies, liquidations, restructurings, consolidations and outages, and the possible obligation to make payments to our partners. Our success is, in many ways, dependent on the success of our partners. From customer acquisition to cobranding arrangements, from providing rewards and benefits to customers to facilitating B2B supplier payments for our corporate clients, we rely on our business partners across many aspects of our company and our arrangements with business partners represent a significant portion of our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Joint ventures, such as those through which we operate in certain foreign jurisdictions, and minority investments in companies, such as GBTG, inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, thereby potentially increasing the financial, legal, operational and/or compliance risks associated with the joint venture or minority investment, including as a result of being subject to different laws or regulations. Joint ventures and other partnerships or minority investments operating in foreign jurisdictions may also face risks from adverse regulatory actions, which could adversely affect their operations or our investment. In addition, we may be dependent on joint venture partners, controlling shareholders or management who may have business interests, strategies or goals that are inconsistent with ours and we have been and may in the future be involved in litigation with our joint venture partners and other shareholders and parties related to the joint ventures and investments.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increased credit risk, whether resulting from underestimating the credit losses inherent in our portfolio of loans and receivables, deteriorating economic or political conditions (particularly in the United States, as U.S. Card Members were responsible for approximately 79 percent of our total Card Member loans and receivables outstanding as of December 31, 2025), increases in the level of loan and receivable balances, changes in our mix of business or otherwise, could require us to increase our provisions for losses and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Jurisdictions that represent a significant portion of our billed business include the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Mexico.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“While in some cases our business is subject to exemptions related to certain of these regulations, there is no guarantee that such exemptions will continue to be available and even where we are not directly regulated, regulation of bankcard fees significantly negatively impacts the discount revenue derived from our business, including as a result of downward pressure on our discount rate from decreases in competitor pricing in connection with caps on interchange fees.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Political and social conditions, including geopolitical instability (such as from tensions involving China and the United States), fiscal and monetary policies (including developments related to the U.S. federal deficit, debt ceiling, government shutdowns and other budgetary issues), trade wars and tariffs, labor shortages, regional or domestic hostilities, economic sanctions and the prospect or occurrence of more widespread conflicts could also negatively affect our business, operations and partners, consumer and business spending, including travel patterns and business investment, and demand for credit.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“For example, several countries have implemented and are considering the further implementation of tariffs, trade barriers or restrictions and other retaliatory international or domestic policies, as well as other measures affecting cross-border commerce, migration and the flow of information. These actions have had and may likely continue to have broad consequences for the global economy and regional and country economies, as well as impacts to global supply chains and negative effects on our customers and partners, which may adversely affect our business.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Our merchant discount rates have been impacted by regulatory changes affecting competitor pricing in certain international countries and U.S. states, as well as litigation related to pricing, and may in the future be impacted by pricing regulation and litigation. We have also experienced erosion of our merchant discount rates as we increase merchant acceptance.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Political developments, including those relating to recent shifts in trade policy and heightened geopolitical tensions, have resulted in and may further result in an increase in the number, complexity and scope of laws and regulations, heightened legislative and regulatory uncertainty, changes to supervisory and enforcement priorities, and increased risk of fragmentation in global financial regulation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Increased fraudulent activity associated with our products and services could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations, including as a result of credit losses and other expenses.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“As regulators increase their focus with respect to these financial crimes laws, new technologies such as digital currencies develop, near real-time money movement solutions are adopted, we introduce new products and geopolitical tensions increase, we face increased costs related to oversight, supervision and potential fines.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Such disruptions, operational issues, control and process weaknesses or other events could interrupt or compromise the quality of our services to customers, impact the confidentiality, integrity, availability and security of our data, lead to fraudulent transactions on our cards or other products, impact our business, cause brand or reputational damage, and lead to costs associated with responding to a disruption, including notification and remediation costs, costs to switch service providers or move operations in house, regulatory investigations and fines and increased regulatory oversight and litigation.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The development of agentic commerce solutions, in which autonomous or semi-autonomous AI agents initiate and execute transactions on behalf of users, has accelerated as generative AI technologies have advanced and become more popular. In addition, the use of stablecoins, which can be used for payments in a number of settings, including in e-commerce and cross-border and B2B payments, has grown.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Regulatory and legislative changes may also significantly alter the competitive landscape, including by facilitating alternative payment or financing mechanisms, such as recent legislation in the U.S. establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins, or by imposing constraints on payment or financing mechanisms, such as proposals to cap credit card interest rates.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The market for qualified, highly motivated individuals with a range of perspectives is highly competitive and we may not be able to attract and retain such individuals. Advances in technology such as AI may increase competition for individuals with expertise in key skills and require our colleagues to adapt to new skills and methods of working.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Table of Contents Our Colleagues Our colleagues are integral to executing our business strategies and to our overall success. As of December 31, 2025, we employed approximately 76,800 people, whom we refer to as colleagues, with approximately 25,900 colleagues in the United States and approximately 50,900 colleagues outside the United States.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“We face increased scrutiny from stakeholders who have diverging views related to business practices and company activities, which could result in reputational harm, litigation, enforcement actions and other adverse consequences. In addition, we are subject to increasing regulatory requirements and legal risks related to corporate sustainability topics, such as those arising from new disclosure requirements in certain jurisdictions.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Additionally, sustained periods of high inflation may, among other things, increase certain of our expenses and erode consumer purchasing power, confidence and spending.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“The FDIC’s deposit insurance fund is funded by assessments on insured depository institutions, including AENB, which are subject to adjustment by the FDIC.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Jurisdictions that represent a significant portion of our billed business include the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Mexico.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself

“Jurisdictions that represent a significant portion of our billed business include the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and Mexico.”

Annual report 2025A · The company itself