Third-quarter spending volume on American Express corporate
cards totalled $126.1 billion, up from $119.9 billion in the second quarter and
up 28 per cent year over year, the payment company reported Friday.
Average third-quarter spending per Amex's Global Commercial
Services division cardholders also increased to $8,447 from $8,180 in the
second quarter and $6,776 in the third quarter of 2020, according to American
Express. The number of corporate cards in force increased 4 per cent year over
to year to 15.1 million.
Travel and entertainment-related spending during the third
quarter made up 21 per cent of volume on all Amex cards worldwide, up from 18
per cent the prior quarter. Airline-related spending comprised 3 per cent of
all third-quarter volume, holding steady from the second quarter.
Recovery hasn't been consistent across the American Express
corporate customer base, executives reported during a Friday earnings call.
Vice chairman and CFO Jeffrey Campbell pointed out that total third-quarter
billed business by small and midsize enterprises increased 11 per cent from the
third quarter of 2019. By contrast, spending by Amex's large and global clients
fell 43 per cent during the same period.
"Large and global corporate card spending, which
historically has been primarily for travel and entertainment, continued to show
fewer signs of recovery," Campbell said. "We've said all along that
we expect this will be the last customer type to see travel recover."
Campbell added that the spread of the Delta variant of
Covid-19 affected air travel spending. "The pace of recovery slowed a bit
in August, but it has strengthened again in September and into early
October," he said. "The trends we have seen reinforce our view that
travel and entertainment spending will eventually fully recover, but at varying
paces across customer types and geographies."