American Express

The firm graded bank and credit card apps on customer satisfaction, appearance, navigability, and availability and clarity of information.

Talking with Shari Van Cleave, head of Wells Fargo Digital Labs; Citizens Financial makes a big move in mortgages in purchasing Franklin American; a rewards blockchain could give Amex access to a wealth of customer data; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Dark clouds may not yet be on the horizon, but industry executives are sending the message to investors that they know a turn in the credit cycle is coming, and they are planning accordingly.

The credit card issuer has built a distributed ledger through which merchants create their own membership rewards and get access to detailed information on purchases and the success of promotions.

Major card brands have been competing to surpass each other with rewards and premium card offerings for decades, but American Express still views the premium card world as one it dominates.

Bill to end the guidance intended to fight discriminatory lending now goes to the House; card company’s push to make more loans to customers pays dividends.

American Express Co., long known to issue cards that had to be paid off in full every month, now wants its customers to take their time paying it back.

American Express Ventures has become an investor in the startup EverCompliant, which helps financial institutions root out e-commerce websites backed by terrorists and drug cartels that are laundering money through payments-processing networks.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is reportedly considering leaving by the end of this year; American Express plans to reduce its merchant fees to stay competitive.

The card activation process is relatively low-tech, but since its introduction nearly three decades ago it has been hugely effective in preventing credit cards from falling into the wrong hands. Among its pioneers was Ash Gupta, American Express’ president of global credit risk, who is retiring next month.