Financial Astrology of American Express Company

FINANCIAL ASTROLOGY

First Trade Date for American Express Company

Company Name	First Trade Date (yyyy-mm-dd)
American Express Company	1977-05-18

Company Name	Symbol
American Express Company	AXP
History and Business of Company (this information may include date of incorporation)
American Express Company (including its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise, the "Company") was founded in 1850 as a joint stock association and was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in 1965. The Company is primarily engaged in the business of providing travel related services, financial advisory services and international banking services throughout the world.* The Company maintains an Investor Relations website on the Internet at http://ir.americanexpress.com. The Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports are available free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable following the time they are filed with or furnished to the SEC by clicking on the "SEC Filings" link found on the Investor Relations homepage. Interested persons are also able to access the Company's Investor Relations website through the Company's main website at www.americanexpress.com by clicking on the "About American Express" link, which is located at the bottom of the Company's homepage. American Express entered 2002 after one of the most challenging years in its recent history. The Company established several important goals for the year: to deliver solid earnings, improve the underlying economics of its business, continue to lower certain risks in the business and increase its investment in business-building activities. By the end of the year, management believed that it had achieved significant success against these goals, particularly in light of weak economies and financial markets around the world. The Company's 2002 financial results reflected solid growth in the Company's card businesses; lower expenses due to the success of ongoing reengineering programs; strong credit quality with very low write-off rates in the Company's charge card portfolio; and the benefits of lower funding costs from historically low interest rates, which resulted in a benefit to the Company of more than $500 million in interest savings. For a complete discussion of the Company's financial results, see pages 26-84 of the Company's 2002 Annual Report to Shareholders, which are incorporated herein by reference. For a discussion of the Company's principal sources of revenue, see pages 58-59 of the Company's 2002 Annual Report to Shareholders. In 2003, the Company expects continued uncertainty in the global economy and financial markets. In addition, the ongoing war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism and other geopolitical uncertainty could have a negative impact on the global economy, consumer confidence and the Company's results. During 2002, the Company undertook several measures to continue to strengthen its business model so that it is more flexible and adaptable and less reliant on good economic cycles to deliver strong results. The Company continued its reengineering initiatives and delivered over $1 billion in benefits while also improving major business processes. It expanded the use of the Internet to serve customers and continued to diversify card spending by lowering reliance on merchants in the travel and entertainment sectors. It continued to focus on strengthening its balance sheet and improving its risk profile by increasing reserves for card receivables and merchant bankruptcies and continuing to lower its corporate lending balances while building a more diversified consumer and private banking loan portfolio. The Company developed new strategic relationships that enhanced capabilities, and invested in business-building activities, which resulted in the expansion of its card portfolio in the U.S. and internationally, as well as growth in its Global Network Services business in international markets. In addition to the measures the Company undertook to strengthen its business, improve its risk profile and invest in business-building activities, the Company also placed renewed emphasis on managing its business with integrity and with the strong values that have guided it throughout its history. The Company supported the various corporate governance reforms adopted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and proposed by the New York Stock Exchange. Though many of the measures required by the new regulations were already in place at the Company, the ethical failures uncovered at a number of companies in late 2001 and 2002 served to refocus management on ensuring that the Company strives to meet its financial targets based on the Company's long-term interests rather than on short-term, expedient solutions.

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