American Express Logo — American Express Company, commonly known as Amex or AmEx, is a financial institution based in New York, has more than 1,700 offices in over 130 countries worldwide. The magazine Fortune puts it at number 74 in world ranking of the largest companies. Among their offerings are the credit cards, traveler checks, insurance, brokerage services and online banking, the latter two supervised by the American Express Bank.
AmEx began operations in Buffalo, United States, on March 18 of 1850 as a rail service carrying charges and values throughout the territory of the United States. Due to the increasing demand for these services, quickly and safely, AmEx began to focus on financial services which gave a much more secure in the business of those times. Due to the success, AmEx began service of twists and travelers checks. Marcellus Berry, an employee of American Express created the draft or “Money Order” in 1882, Travel Voucher precursor was an absolute necessity for both domestic and international travelers.
After the international expansion and high demand to the travel industry, AmEx launched its charge card known as “The American Express Card”, issuing more than one million in the United States and Canada. In 1970, this card was already accepted at over 121,000 establishments and accepted and 11 types of coins.
In April 1986, AmEx moved to what is now headquartered: the American Express Tower or the Three World Financial Center in New York. The company’s earnings in the first quarter of 2009 were U.S. $ 437 million, representing a fall of 56% over the same period in 2008, because customers spent 16% during that time.