After bottoming out at $82.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020, spending on American Express corporate cards rebounded to $98.5 billion during Q3, but that figure still was down 23 percent year over year as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to hamper corporate spending, Amex's Global Commercial Services division on reported on Friday.
Average Q3 cardholder spending also was up compared with the second quarter, increasing to $6,776 from Q2's $5,645 average, but was 21 percent lower compared with the previous year. Amex GCS reported 14.5 million cards in force during the third quarter, down from 14.8 million in Q3 2019.
Third-quarter T&E spending on all Amex cards was down 69 percent year over year—an improvement over the 87 percent year-on-year freefall during Q2, the first quarter in which the corporate card giant felt the full force of Covid-19's devastating impact on the global economy. Meanwhile, airline-related spending ticked up to comprise 1 percent of total spending volume on all Amex cards, in Q3, after comprising statistically 0 percent of such spending in the previous quarter.
Overall, the GCS division reported third-quarter net income of $220 million, a 60 percent drop from $568 million a year ago. Total expenses were $2 billion, down 14 percent from $2.4 billion a year ago. The decrease "primarily reflected lower client incentives and other customer engagement costs due to a decline in card member spending," Amex said.