American Express Company

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're 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. Thank you. 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 could 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 Christophe LeCayac, 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 Christoph. With that, let me turn it over to Steve.

Thank you, Kerry. Good morning, and thanks for joining us today for our third quarter earnings call. Q3 was our seventh consecutive quarter of strong performance, continuing the momentum we've built over the last few years and aligned with the growth plan we announced in 2022. It was the sixth consecutive quarter of record revenues, which reached $15.4 billion, up 13% year over year. Earnings per share of $3.30 was also a new quarterly record. Based on our performance to date, we remain confident in our ability to achieve full-year revenue growth and EPS growth that is consistent with the annual guidance we provided at the beginning of the year. And we are well positioned as we seek to achieve our growth plan aspirations of annual revenue growth in excess of 10% and mid-teens EPS growth in 2024 and beyond in a steady state macro environment. My confidence is based on several factors, including the many attractive opportunities available to us because of the businesses and geographies we operate in. Our unique membership model, which powers a virtuous cycle of growth. the success of the strategic investments we've been making in key areas of our business, and our ability to leverage our differentiated business model, which includes our premium global customer base, integrated payments platform, strong partner relationships, and trusted brand. Together, these factors have driven our strong performance over the past two years, including the continued momentum we saw in the third quarter. In the quarter, card member spending remained strong, up 7% year over year on an FX-adjusted basis. Spending was strongest in our U.S. consumer segment, up 9%, and international card services segment, up 15% on an FX-adjusted basis. And U.S. small business spending increased slightly from a year ago. Millennial and Gen Z consumers continue to be the fastest-growing portion of our card member base. with spending from this demographic in the U.S. up 18% year-over-year, and they accounted for more than 60% of all new consumer account acquisitions globally in the quarter. Demand for our products remained robust, particularly for fee-based products, which represented more than 70% of the new accounts acquired in the quarter. Customers continue to be highly satisfied with our products and services, which drives high levels of engagement and retention. We were rated the number one U.S. credit card company for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power for the fourth consecutive year and the 13th time in 17 years of the study. And our credit metrics remain best in class as we continue our focus on growing with discipline and a strong focus on risk management across the portfolio. A key reason for the momentum we're seeing is the investments we've been making in innovating our value propositions to deliver generational relevance across all age groups. Resi is a good example of some of the ways we're doing this. We acquired Resi and continue to invest in building out the platform because we know that dining is something that all generations of card members care about. We've seen that in our results as restaurants continue to be the largest and one of the fastest growing T&E categories in the third quarter. The number of Resi users, restaurants on the platform, and reservations booked all continue to grow significantly. In Q3, reservations on the platform set another quarterly record. Over the last few years, we've also ramped up the number of exclusive lifestyle experiences, sponsorships, and access to events we offer that appeal to our card members across generations and geographies and reinforce the unique value of membership. Our highly popular experiences cut across entertainment, sports, food, art, and fashion. They generate strong on-site engagement with our branded activities and offers, and they help drive interest among prospects. They also continue to attract world-class partners who work with us to add new ways for our card members and prospects to experience the power of Amex membership. Earlier this week, we announced our latest sponsorship, an exclusive multi-year agreement with Formula One to be the official payments partner of Formula One in the Americas. This sponsorship is our first new sports vertical in over 10 years. And it represents a great opportunity to build on the rapidly growing popularity of Formula One racing around the world. Another way we're delivering generational relevance is by regularly refreshing and adding value to our products on a global basis. These product enhancements are tailored to the interest and spending patterns of our customers of all age groups in each local market. So far this year, we've made enhancements to over 20 premium products across the company. some of the latest of which were refreshes of our platinum card products in Japan, our business gold card in the U.S., and just yesterday, our Hilton co-branded consumer cards. These examples and many others like them are further enriching our membership model, which helps us attract new premium customers, drive retention, and deepen engagement with current customers, and add more merchants and partners who provide offers and experiences that deliver additional value. Looking ahead, I feel very good about where we are and where we're going. We'll continue our strategy of investing for growth and adding more differentiated value to our membership model to deliver generational relevance while continuing to leverage the strengths of our business model, all of which gives us a competitive advantage. I'll now hand the call over to Christophe LeCayac for additional detail on our quarterly results.