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THE MARKET
American Express is a world leader in travel and
financial services including charge and credit cards,
Travellers Cheques, foreign exchange and
insurance and international banking. Through its
family of Corporate Card and business travel
services, American Express helps companies
manage their travel, entertainment and purchasing
expenses.
As the world’s largest travel agency, American
Express offers travel and related consulting services
to individuals and corporations around the world.
The company also provides private banking
services and personal financial services to
individuals outside the United States.
In Australia, American
Express operates in a
highly competitive and
dynamic industry. The
company dominates the
Corporate Card and Small
Business market, and
offers
consumer
Cardmembers one of the
most highly regarded
loyalty programs in Australia – the Membership
Rewards
TM
program.
ACHIEVEMENTS
American Express was the first financial services
company to offer a loyalty program – the program
was launched in 1992 as Membership Miles. The
Membership Rewards program is unique in many
ways – with no expiry on points earned as long as
your account remains current. It is also the only
financial services rewards
program in Australia to offer
tenured rewards, a special offer
to long tenured customers that
offers them a special selection
of rewards for fewer points.
MembershipRewards is also the
only Card rewards program to
offer customers the flexibility of
combining their points to redeem
large ticket items or to transfer a
portion of their points balance to a family member
or friend as a gift.
The American Express Membership Rewards
program was awarded 5 stars in CANNEX’s 2007
Rewards Star Ratings, the first national comparison
of rewardsprogram.TheAmericanExpressPlatinum
Credit Cardwas also recently named fully featured
credit cardof theyear in the2007FinancialReview’s
Smart Investor Blue RibbonAwards.
American Express was awarded an Employer of
Choice citation by the Federal Government’s
Employer of Choice for WomenAgency (EOWA)
in March 2007 for the
seventh year in a row.
Marie Claire also
recently featured
AmericanExpress as a
‘Best in the Business’
employer on its
website.
Hewitt
Associates
also
announced American
Express as Australia’s
best employer in the ‘LargeOrganisation’ category
at the annual 2007 Hewitt Best Employers Award
ceremony for the fourth year in
a row.
HISTORY
The express and freight
forwarding business upon
which American Express was
founded was an essential
service, and its stagecoach,
express wagon and railway car
staff were rugged individuals whose duties were
romanticised by the public.
During the latter half of the 19th Century, as
Americans developed an intense appetite for travel,
the company expanded its freight forwarding
services into Europe. Americans abroad began to
rely on the company for travel advice, andAmerican
Express increasingly became a travel services
company.
With World War I, American Express’
international growth plans were quashed. When
the United States entered the war in 1917, the
railroads were commandeered for government
purposes and the express and freight companies
were consolidated into a single entity, known as
theAmericanRailway Express Company.
However, with its strong money order sales and
the introduction of the Travellers Cheque in 1891,
American Express had diversified its businesses
enough to separate its growing travel and financial
operations from the freight and express businesses
and the company thrived despite the loss of its
core business. In time the travel business flourished,
and the company’s financial businesses also
performedwell.
By the early 1950s, American Express had
solidified its position as one of the world’s premier
travel companies. Its offices around the globe –
like the famous 11, rue Scribe site in Paris – were
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