Travel and entertainment spending by American Express U.S. commercial customers increased 5 percent year over year in the third quarter, as Amex chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri reported a broader "bounce back" in travel for the quarter.
The increase marks a reversal of a slowing growth trend in previous quarters this year, with U.S. commercial T&E spending up 2 percent year over year in the first quarter and 1 percent in the second quarter. T&E spending by Amex's U.S. consumer customers was up 9 percent year over year in the quarter, and Amex CFO Christophe Le Caillec said airline spending "picked up" in the quarter.
"Premium T&E bookings saw good momentum, with spending on front-of-cabin airline tickets up 14 percent," he said in an earnings call.
Total spending by Amex's large and global corporate clients in the U.S., inclusive of T&E and goods and services, increased 6 percent year over year in the second quarter. Total spending by small and midsized clients increased 4 percent year over year.
Squeri said the SME growth comes largely from "good acquisition" of business, but he said that organic growth is starting "to turn around a little bit" both on the smaller end of the SME spectrum and in the midmarket.
"We think, hopefully, the downturn that we saw from an organic perspective is going to be behind us," Squeri said.
Squeri added that Amex is looking at early next year to "launch our version of Center integrated in with our cards." Amex acquired Center, an SME-focused payment and expense technology provider co-founded by Concur co-founder Steve Singh, earlier this year.
Amex reported continued strong growth for spending among its customers outside the U.S. in the third quarter as well. Total international SME and large corporate spending, inclusive of T&E and goods and services, was up 12 percent over year. Total T&E spending among international customers, inclusive of commercial and consumer customers, increased 8 percent year over year.
Amex's total revenue increased 11 percent year over year to $18.4 billion in the quarter. The third quarter included the launch of Amex's refreshed consumer and business Platinum product, which increases the annual fee but adds more annual benefits, as well as the launch of a new travel app for cardholders. Le Caillec noted that Amex also had a "small gain" in the quarter related to American Express Global Business Travel's completed acquisition of CWT, as Amex still has a minority stake in Amex GBT.
Amex reported a net income of $2.9 billion for the third quarter, up 16 percent from its $2.5 billion net income in the third quarter of 2025.
RELATED: Amex Q2 performance