Friday 12 July 2013

Non-card products

Traveler's checks

Amex is the largest provider of traveler's checks in the world.

In 2005, American Express released the American Express Travelers Check Card, a stored-value card that serves the same purposes as a traveler's check, but can be used in stores like a credit card. The card has since been discontinued as of October 31, 2007, due to "changing market conditions". All cardholders were issued refund checks for the remaining balances.

Shearson/American Express See also: Shearson/American Express Shearson/American Express logo c. 1982

During the 1980s, American Express began purchasing stock brokerage firms as part of an expansion. In mid-1981 it purchased Sanford I. Weill's Shearson Loeb Rhoades, the second largest securities firm in the United States to form Shearson/American Express. Shearson Loeb Rhoades, itself was the culmination of several mergers in the 1970s as Weill's Hayden, Stone & Co. merged with Shearson, Hammill & Co. in 1974 to form Shearson Hayden Stone. Shearson Hayden Stone then merged with Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co. (formerly Loeb, Rhoades & Co. to form Shearson Loeb Rhoades in 1979. With capital totalling $250 million at the time of its acquisition, Shearson Loeb Rhoades trailed only Merrill Lynch as the securities industry's largest brokerage firm. After its acquisition by American Express, the firm was renamed Shearson/American Express.

In 1984 Shearson/American Express purchased the 90-year-old Investors Diversified Services, bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products. Also in 1984, American Express acquired the investment banking and trading firm, Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, and added it to the Shearson family, creating Shearson Lehman/American Express. In 1988, the firm acquired E. F. Hutton & Co., forming Shearson Lehman Hutton until 1990, when the firm's name became Shearson Lehman Brothers. When Harvey Golub took the reins in 1993 he negotiated the sale of Shearson's retail brokerage and asset management business to Primerica and in following year, spun off of the remaining investment banking and institutional businesses as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Financial advisors

On September 30, 2005, American Express spun off its American Express Financial Advisors unit as a publicly traded company, Ameriprise Financial, Inc.. Due to this, American Express revenues for 2005 are down around $5 billion, however, like-for-like they are up 10.5% in 2005. Also, on September 30, 2005, RSM McGladrey acquired American Express Tax & Business Services (TBS).

On September 18, 2007, Standard Chartered Bank agreed to acquire American Express Bank Ltd, a commercial bank, from American Express Co, for an estimated US$823 million, through a friendly divestiture process.

Travel

American Express established a Travel Division in 1915 that tied together all of the earlier efforts at making travel easier, and soon established its first travel agencies. In the 1930s, the Travel Division had grown widely. Albert K. Dawson was instrumental in expanding business operations overseas, even investing in tourist relations with the Soviet Union. Dawson during World War I had been a photographer and film correspondent with the German army. Today the focus of The Travel Division is on business customers and business travel.

Publishing

The American Express Publishing Corporation publishes the Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Executive Travel, and Departures magazines and is based in New York City.

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