American Express Company (nyse: AXP), sometimes known as "AmEx" or "Amex", is a diversified global financial services company that is headquartered in New York City, New York. Founded in 1850, the company also has major offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; Greensboro, North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Markham, Ontario, Canada; London and Brighton, United Kingdom. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler's cheque businesses.

The company's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "AXP." It is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2007, BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the fourteenth most valuable brand in the world, estimating it to be worth US$20.87 billion.

On November 10, 2008, during the financial crisis of 2008, the company won Federal Reserve System approval to convert to a bank holding company, making it eligible for government help under the Troubled Assets Relief Program. At that time, American Express had total consolidated assets of about $127 billion.

American Express's chief executive officer is Kenneth Chenault, who took over in 2001.

Early history

American Express was started as an express mail business in Albany, New York, in 1850. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company, the successor earlier in 1850 of Butterfield, Wasson & Company). The same founders also started Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 when Butterfield and other directors objected to the proposal that American Express extend its operations to distant California.

American Express first established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of Jay Street and Hudson Street in what was later called the TriBeCa section of Manhattan. For years it enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the movement of express shipments (goods, securities, currency, etc.) throughout New York State. In 1874, American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in what was becoming the Financial District of Manhattan, a location it was to retain through two buildings.Kenneth T. Jackson. The Encyclopedia of New York City. The New York Historical Society: Yale University Press, 1995. P. 23.

American Express buildings

In 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. The company's first New York headquarters were in an impressive marble Italianate palazzo at 55-61 Hudson Street between Thomas Street and Jay Street (1857–58, John Warren Ritch), which had a busy freight depot on the ground story with a spur line from the Hudson River Railroad. A stable was constructed nearby at 4-8 Hubert Street, between Hudson Street and Collister Street (1866–67, Ritch & Griffiths), five blocks north of the Hudson Street building.