CWT Signs Multiyear Card Deal With Amex

Carlson Wagonlit Travel and American Express Global Commercial Card today announced a multiyear agreement for CWT to distribute and promote American Express payment solutions in 21 countries.

The deal makes Amex CWT's sole preferred global supplier of payment solutions and combines several local agreements between the two companies and previous deals between Navigant International and Amex, which CWT garnered in its 2006 Navigant acquisition, according to CWT executive vice president of global supplier management Mike Koetting.

Amex is a direct card issuer in the 21 countries the agreement encompasses, including Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the next three to four months, Koetting expects expansion to other markets, as CWT is working on deals with indirect issuers of Amex corporate cards.

The agreement, which encompasses Amex's business travel account, corporate card and corporate meetings card products, marks a shift in CWT's preferred payment partner strategy. CWT over the years has sought alternatives to working with the biggest corporate payment solution provider, which hangs on the family tree with CWT's largest TMC competitor, American Express Business Travel. Most recently, in October, CWT announced a deal with MasterCard Worldwide for data integration in 13 European markets and some Asia/Pacific countries. According to Koetting, CWT also has smaller "supported solutions" deals with payment providers including Citibank, Diners Club and AirPlus.

After evaluating its global preferred payment supplier strategy and developing the Amex deal for more than a year, "We felt that the potential benefit to our clients outweighed any risks or concerns that we might have had with working with the sister company of one of our competitors," Koetting said.

The Amex agreement furthers CWT's efforts to integrate card and agency data reporting. CWT rolled out its Agency+Card Reporting tool in April, testing with two corporations using Amex and Diners Club. The shared resources of Amex and CWT will focus on increasing data availability, consistency, accuracy and timeliness, according to Koetting.

"It's creating resources. CWT and American Express are going to work together to accelerate the evolution and advancement of this Agency+Card data product," he said. "As part of this agreement, we've confirmed that no other organization will receive data that is superior to what is provided to CWT."