American Express AMEX on July 24, 2026 reported second-quarter earnings that beat expectations and raised its full-year revenue growth guidance to 10%. Card Member spending rose 9% on an FX-adjusted basis, “the highest rate we’ve seen in three years,” Chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri said. The quarter is most telling for what it shows about where a card network’s profits are shifting.
Revenue up 10%, earnings per share up 11%
| Metric | Q2 2026 | Q2 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billed business | $455.8B | $416.3B | +9% |
| Total revenues net of interest expense | $19,637M | $17,856M | +10% |
| Pretax income | $4,071M | $3,550M | +15% |
| Net income | $3,110M | $2,885M | +8% |
| Diluted EPS | $4.53 | $4.08 | +11% |
| Average diluted shares outstanding | 679M | 699M | -3% |
For the first half, billed business reached $883.8 billion, up 10%, revenue rose 11% to $38,544 million, and EPS climbed 14% to $8.81. Second-quarter expenses rose 12% to $14.5 billion, driven by higher variable customer engagement costs, the refresh of the US Platinum Card, and greater use of Card Member benefits. The effective tax rate rose to 23.6% from 18.7% a year earlier.
Credit held up. Provisions for credit losses fell to $1.1 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier, reflecting a reserve release in the quarter compared with a reserve build a year ago, partly offset by higher net write-offs. The net write-off rate was 2.0%, flat year over year.
Card fees are the new growth engine
The quarter’s most important number isn’t volume. It’s the card fee. Card fee revenue rose 15.4% from a year earlier to a record, and management expects growth to accelerate in the third quarter and to exit the year in the “high teens,” or close to 20%. The driver is the refresh of the US Platinum Card, launched in September 2025, with the new pricing flowing through since January.
- US consumer spending: up 11%, the fastest growth since the first quarter of 2018, excluding the pandemic period.
- International spending: up 12% FX-adjusted, with spending on Platinum cards outside the US up 20%.
- Acquisition: about 3 million new cards in the quarter.
- New customers: Millennials and Gen Z account for about 65% of new US consumer accounts, and for about 70% of new Platinum accounts outside the US.
- Commercial: spending by small businesses rose 5%, as did spending by large and global corporate clients.
Amex reinvests the upside instead of banking it
The company made no secret of its choice. Based on the first half, Squeri said, Amex plans “to reinvest this outperformance in growth initiatives.” CFO Christophe Le Caillec said marketing spending will rise 10% in the second half from 2025, up from a 6% increase in the second quarter. Technology spending will also rise, though Amex gave no figure. “We have a large backlog of technology projects,” Squeri told analysts. Full-year EPS guidance is unchanged at $17.30 to $17.90.
Beyond the card: dining, expense management, and partnerships
- A proposed acquisition of TheFork, the European restaurant booking platform, which lists 50,000 restaurants across 11 countries.
- A pilot of a new expense management platform, called Center on the earnings call, with an initial group of middle-market customers.
- Membership Rewards points can now be redeemed by US Card Members checking out with Apple Pay.
- New travel benefits for Delta SkyMiles co-brand Card Members, and a new global partnership with ALL Accor, the booking and loyalty platform for Accor’s 45 hotel brands.
Merchant acceptance tops Amex’s own list of risks
The risk factors in the press release read like a summary of the industry’s open issues: regulatory initiatives, including pricing for card acceptance, interest rate and fee caps, and network regulation; merchant coverage growing less than expected; surcharging; steering customers to other payment methods; and merchant discount rates moving away from the company’s expectations. For a three-party network whose merchant discount has historically run above that of the four-party schemes, the last three are the crux of the matter.
Three things to watch in the third quarter: whether card fee growth accelerates as promised, whether the net write-off rate holds at 2.0%, and how the TheFork deal progresses. The acquisition still requires a labor consultation process and regulatory approvals.