American Express Company

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Thank you, Daryl, 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 GAAP 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 Squirey, 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, Kartik. Good morning, and thanks for joining us. 2024 was another strong year for American Express. We delivered record revenues of $66 billion for the year, up 10% on an FX-adjusted basis, achieving our long-term aspirations. We had record net income of $10 billion, with earnings per share of $14.01, up 25% for the year, which is higher than our long-term aspiration. The great work of our colleagues around the world drove 2024 results that were strong across our key metrics, setting new records in many categories. In addition to record revenues and net income, we had record levels of annual card member spending, record net card fees, and a record 13 million new card acquisitions. We also saw continued high card member retention, best-in-class credit performance, and disciplined expense management. Notably, we exited the year with increased momentum as fourth quarter billings growth accelerated to 8% overall, driven by robust holiday spend. We continue to enrich our membership model, refreshing over 40 products globally in 2024, including the U.S. Consumer Gold Card, which is particularly appealing to millennial and Gen Z consumers. as well as refreshing our Delta co-brand cards. We also enhanced our dining portfolio with the acquisitions of Tock and Roam, and we launched several new top-tier sponsorships and experiences, such as our multi-year global partnership with Formula One. Our U.S. small and medium-sized enterprise customer base continued to grow with strong new card acquisitions throughout the year, and we saw an improvement in small business sentiment in the fourth quarter, which linked to stronger organic spending by our small business customers through the holiday season. A key driver of our growth is the ongoing global expansion of our merchant network. We added millions of new merchant locations globally in 2024, and we reached an average of 80% coverage across our top 12 international countries, with coverage in travel and entertainment categories well above 80%. That's an increase of 8 percentage points from three years ago. These results clearly show that our strategy of backing our customers by investing in our value propositions, coverage, marketing, technology, and talent is working. As we look ahead to 2025, American Express will be celebrating a major milestone, our 175th year in business. Our company's history is one of innovation and growth. From our start in 1850 as a freight delivery company operated with horses, wagons, and trains, to becoming a global travel services company in the early 20th century, pivoting into a card-focused payments company by the 1960s, and ultimately evolving into the global premium financial and lifestyle company powered by technology we are today. Our longevity has been fueled by talented colleagues who have delivered a steady stream of innovative products and services that are focused on serving premium consumers and businesses of all sizes and who have stayed true to our brand that has been built on trust, security, and service since our earliest days. As I've discussed over the past several years, we've continued the cycle of customer-focused innovation, which has been largely responsible for resetting the growth trajectory of the company. We believe our growth is sustainable. We're confident that we will continue to bring in large numbers of new premium customers, especially millennial and Gen Z consumers and small businesses, while also maintaining high growth across our international business. In looking at the external marketplace, we continue to see strategic opportunities to sustain our growth. For example, in the US, fee-based consumer premium cards are the fastest growing part of the industry, and we have about 25% of those cards indicating a continued upside opportunity. Across the industry, the number of millennials and Gen Z consumers with premium products are growing at an even faster rate, and we're adding highly creditworthy customers in these cohorts faster than the industry, with substantial room to continue this growth. It's clear that our premium products are resonating well with these age groups whose spending needs will continue to expand as they move forward in their lives and careers, with many likely to also start new small businesses in the coming years. In SME, we see continued growth opportunities in the U.S., where we expect to continue adding new small business customers and expanding our offerings to meet more of their needs beyond the card, such as lending, checking, and cash flow management. And when we look at international, which is our fastest-growing segment, we are underpenetrated in both consumer and SME. We have an average of 6% spend share across our top five countries, which represent almost a third of the revenues outside the U.S., International SME in particular is growing off a small base, and with the differentiated products and capabilities we offer, we have an opportunity to continue our rapid growth in this part of our business. The long runway for growth we see both in international consumer and SME, coupled with the opportunities we have to continue expanding our merchant coverage across the globe, gives us confidence that we can sustain our growth trajectory outside the U.S., So as we look at this year and beyond, we're going to continue with our strategy of investing at high levels in innovative value propositions, marketing, and technology to drive growth. This includes our ongoing focus on our product refresh strategy. Currently, we're refreshing between 35 and 50 products a year, and we're planning to maintain that pace in 2025, along with other enhancements to our membership model for both our consumer and commercial customers. Turning to guidance for the year, we expect 2025 revenue growth of 8% to 10%, an EPS of $15 to $15.50, or a 12% to 16% increase over 2024 adjusted for the certified gain. Regarding our thinking and establishing this year's guidance, as we've said, card member spending is the largest component of our total revenues. In putting our plan together, our assumption had been that steady billings growth we saw through most of 2024 would continue in 2025. But the fourth quarter spend numbers were stronger than we expected. While it's too soon to tell how this year will play out, we're encouraged by that increased momentum we saw exiting 2024. For now, we're assuming 2025 billings growth will be similar to full year 2024 number. However, if spend growth continues at the elevated Q4 level throughout this year, We would expect to come in at the higher end of our revenue range, all else being equal. I'll now turn it over to Christoph for additional commentary about our results and our 2025 guidance.