Amex: Q3 Int’l Customer Spending Grows Amid Domestic ‘Stability’

Year-over-year spending growth by American Express international customers continued to outpace that of U.S. customers in the third quarter, Amex reported in its earnings on Friday.

Travel and entertainment spending was up 2 percent year over year for Amex’s U.S. commercial customers, compared with a 1 percent growth in spending on goods and services. Overall, commercial spending is “up modestly and consistent with what we’ve seen over the past few quarters,” Amex CFO Christophe Le Caillec said in an earnings call.

Among small and midsized U.S. commercial customers, which make up 83 percent of Amex’s total U.S. commercial spending volume, total spending inclusive of T&E and goods and services was up 1 percent year over year in the third quarter. Spending by large and global companies in the U.S. was flat year over year.

With U.S. commercial year-over-year spending growth up either 1 percent or 2 percent every quarter over the past year, Le Caillec indicated upcoming growth rates would be similar.

“We see stability in terms of billings, in terms of the trends and no inflection points,” Le Caillec said. “We are only a few weeks into [the fourth quarter], but my projection for Q4 is to be a continuation of a lot of these trends.”

Spending by Amex’s corporate customers outside of the U.S., meanwhile, was up 13 percent year over year in the third quarter, the same rate as consumer spending outside of the United States. Spending in T&E by corporate and commercial customers outside the U.S. was up 11 percent year over year as goods and services spending increased 14 percent year over year.

“The breadth of this continued performance is especially worth noting,” Le Caillec said. “Every one of our top five markets is growing in double digits, with four out of the five in mid- to high teens. For example, Japan is up 17 percent and Mexico 15 percent, on a [currency exchange]-adjusted basis.”

Amex reported total revenues of $1 6.6 billion in the third quarter, up 8 percent year over year. Third-quarter net income was $2.5 billion, up 2 percent compared with the third quarter of 2023.

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