American Express Card Results Worldwide

Consumer and commercial credit (including charge) and prepaid purchase volume tied to cards issued in the United States dropped 16.2% to $691.52 billion in 2020.

U.S. credit card outstandings fell 17.5% to $101.99 billion. Cards issued in the U.S. dropped 1.6% to 53.8 million at December 31, 2020. American Express cards issued in the U.S. equaled 48.04% of its worldwide total at year-end 2020, up from 47.81% in 2019.

Total volume—the combination of purchase volume and cash advances—on all Amex cards issued in the U.S., declined 16.3% to $693.10 billion in 2020. Covid-19 impacted U.S. travel and entertainment (T&E) total volume, which plunged 55.5% to $93.87 billion and accounted for 13.54% of the U.S. total, down from 25.48% in 2019.

All other U.S. cards combined generated $599.23 billion in total volume, down 2.9% versus 2019. Total volume on U.S. consumer card products directly issued by American Express dropped 15.3% to $337.60 billion.

American Express’s U.S. card-issuing partners—Bank of America, BBVA Compass, Citigroup, Credit One, First National Bank of Omaha, Navy Federal Credit Union, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, U.S. Bank, USAA and Wells Fargo—collectively accounted for $18.56 billion in total volume on Amex cards they issued, down 7.6%.

All American Express cards worldwide, including those issued by Global Network Services (GNS) partners outside the U.S., combined generated total volume of $1.011 trillion in 2020, down 18.2% from 2019. T&E volume worldwide totaled $145.29 billion and accounted for 14.38% of the worldwide total. All other card products combined totaled $865.31 billion.

On cards issued directly by American Express worldwide, total volume was $870.70 billion, down 19.0%. On cards issued by Global Network Services (GNS) partners, total volume dropped 17.0% to $139.90 billion.

Total volume on all cards issued outside the U.S. decreased 22.0% on a local currency basis to $317.50 billion. Total volume on American Express cards issued in its Japan/Asia–Pacific/Australia region dropped 16%. Amex cards issued in Latin America and Canada declined 26%, while total volume on cards issued in Europe, the Middle East and Africa dropped 31%.

Cards issued to consumers outside the U.S. directly by American Express generated total volume of $121.1 billion, down 21.0%. Total volume on cards issued outside the U.S. to small businesses and corporations directly by Amex decreased 31.0%.

Prior issues: 1168, 1146, 1124, 1102, 1079, 1056, 1033, 1009