American Express would be exploring different ways for its customers to redeem their rewards points for bitcoin. This was declared on Tuesday. Stephen Squeri, CEO of the company, who clarified that he does not believe that a American Express card linked to cryptocurrencies come out in the near future.
Squeri added that the company was already involved in using cards for stablecoins, and that it was pending the developments of a CBDC from the United States government.
Jeff Campbell, chief financial officer of AmEx, agreed with Squeri’s statement, stating that a cryptocurrency-linked card is not in the company’s short-term plans.
He added that “when it comes to NFTs, we’re partnering with, obviously, the NBA and Top Shot and we’ll look at ways to get involved. But like I said, we’re probably not going to offer a crypto card. We’re keeping an eye on crypto just in case.” stabilize. But right now, I don’t see it as immediate or in the medium term for our business.”
American Express It beat market estimates for its quarterly profit as higher travel and entertainment spending and the holiday shopping spree pushed the credit card operator’s volumes to record highs.
People, particularly younger consumers, have been spending more on AmEx cards as they return to pre-pandemic habits, such as dining out and traveling out of the country, thanks to vaccination programs.
That has helped the credit card giant recover from losses from the pandemic, with travel and entertainment spending more than doubling in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.
“Our investment strategy allowed us to reach record levels of spending by card users … to increase acquisitions of new cards, to grow our credit balances,” said Stephen Squeri.
In the fourth quarter, the company’s total revenue, excluding interest expense, rose 30% to about $12.15 billion.
However, the company saw a 29% increase in expenses due to increases in personal wages and increased use of travel-related benefits, in line with figures from other major financial institutions.
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