American Express Company

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the America Express Q1 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star, then one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a tone indicating you have been placed in queue. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing star, then two. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the numbers. Should you require assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Carrie Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Donna, and thank you all for joining today's call. As a reminder, before we begin, Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance. These are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation slides and in our reports on file with the SEC. The discussion today also contains non-GAAP financial measures. The comparable gap financial measures are included in this quarter's earnings materials, as well as the earnings materials for the prior periods we discussed. All of these are posted on our website at ir.americanexpress.com. We'll begin today with Steve Squary, Chairman and CEO, who will start with some remarks about the company's progress and results. And then Jeff Campbell, Chief Financial Officer, will provide a more detailed review of our financial performance. After that, we'll move to a Q&A session on the results with both Steve and Jeff. With that, let me turn it over to Steve.

Thanks, Carrie. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today on our first quarter earnings call. Back in January, we laid out our guidance for 2023 of 15% to 17% revenue growth and double-digit earnings per share growth. Our first quarter results are tracking to this full year guidance. Revenues were a record $14.3 billion per quarter, up 22%, which is well above our full year expectations. Stronger spending growth outside the US and in T&E offset some softness in US small business spending. EPS came in a bit higher than our original plan expectation. Our plan calls for quarterly EPS to grow sequentially through the year as our revenue growth continues. Build business was up 16% globally year over year on an FX adjusted basis. T&E spending was up 39% year over year on an FX adjusted basis due to the grow over effect through the grow over benefit from the impact of the Omicron variant in last year's results. We saw strong demand across all T&E categories and customer types. Spending at restaurants continues to be a bright spot with growth accelerating to 28% on an FX adjusted basis year over year. In fact, March was a record month for reservations booked through our Resi platform. The platform now has more than 40 million users globally, an increase of 5 million in the last six months. Consumer travel demand also remains high, with Q1 bookings through our consumer travel business reaching their highest levels since pre-pandemic. As you'll recall, we reorganized our international business last year, bringing together our consumer, small business, and large corporate management teams outside the U.S. to increase agility, scale and efficiency, and accelerate our growth. Our international issuing businesses were the fastest growing before the pandemic, and we're seeing a return to those trends. International card services billings continued to accelerate in the quarter, up 29% on an FX-adjusted basis. Results were driven by robust growth in T&E spending, which increased 58% year-over-year on an FX-adjusted basis. We also saw continued momentum in card acquisitions, with 3.4 million new cards acquired in the quarter. U.S. consumer platinum and gold, business platinum and Delta co-brand account acquisitions all reached record levels. Notably, over 70% of the new accounts acquired globally in a quarter are on fee-based products. As we noted for some time, millennial and Gen Z consumers are driving our growth in billings and acquisitions of premium fee-based products. More than 60% of consumer new accounts acquired globally came from millennial and Gen Z. These customers also continue to contribute the highest growth in billed business among all age cohorts in the U.S., up 28% in a quarter. On credit, our metrics remain best in class, supported by the premium nature of our customer base, our strong risk management capabilities, and the thoughtful underwriting actions we've taken on an ongoing basis. Our customers have been resilient thus far in the face of slower growth and higher inflation economic environment. While the near-term economic outlook is mixed, our customer spending and credit performance to date, along with the continued strong demand for our products from high-quality new customers, reinforces our confidence in our ability to achieve our long-term aspirations. Our capital, funding, and liquidity positions are strong, and we continue to have significant flexibility to maintain a strong balance sheet in periods of uncertain stress. As you know, we run our company for the long term. We have a strategy in place to deal with swings in the economy, which has enabled us to be successful in navigating through the pandemic, the initial recovery period, and the current environment of elevated inflation and higher interest rates. Through it all, we've continued to attract and retain high-quality customers, and our strategic investments have resulted in the momentum we've seen throughout last year and into 2023. We feel good about the decisions we're making around growth, risk management, and the economic environment. Our key metrics are strong. The market opportunities we see in our core businesses are plentiful. And our strategy of investing in value proposition innovations, customer acquisitions, and global merchant coverage continues to drive our growth. Based on our performance to date, we are reaffirming our full-year guidance of delivering between 15% and 17% revenue growth and earnings per share of between 11% and 11.40%. We remain committed to focusing on achieving our aspiration of delivering sustainable revenue growth greater than 10% and 15% ZPS growth as we get to a more steady-state macro environment. Thank you, and now I'll turn it over to Jeff.