American Express Raises Expense Outlook and Reaffirms Revenue Growth at Barclays Conference

American Express CFO Christophe Le Caillec told the Barclays 24th Annual Global Financial Services Conference on September 16 that operating trends through the first half of 2026 remained strong, driven by cardmember spending growth, rising card fees and net interest income. The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance of 9% to 10% revenue growth and earnings per share of $17.30 to $17.90, while raising its outlook for variable customer engagement expenses, or VCE, to a range of 44% to 45% of revenue from the prior estimate of approximately 44%. Le Caillec attributed the higher VCE forecast partly to the rollout timing of refreshed card benefits becoming available to cardmembers.

On the commercial side, Le Caillec said American Express does not expect a turnaround in commercial billings growth during 2026, framing its business-card push as a longer-term initiative built around no-preset-spending-limit cards, expense-management tools and the integrated Center platform, which has been connected to core systems but is not yet being broadly scaled. The CFO emphasized the company's 33 proprietary airport lounges, its Delta partnership and 3,400 Fine Hotels and Resorts properties as central to differentiating premium cards through travel and dining rather than competing on rewards points alone.

American Express shares dipped alongside broader market weakness on September 16, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 175 points on losses including IBM and American Express. The softness came on the heels of a stronger-than-expected August retail sales report that weighed on rate-sensitive financial stocks.

Separately, American Express announced plans to open its first Centurion Lounge at one of Europe's busiest airports, extending a global network that currently numbers 33 proprietary locations. The company also launched a high-yield Business Savings account as part of a push to add integrated banking products to its business membership offering, announced in a press release dated September 15. In Canada, American Express and Aspire Pre-Flight Hospitality said they are expanding their existing Aspire Lounge partnership.