Fourth-quarter spending by American Express’ international commercial customers rose by 15 per cent year-on-year to lead the card company’s growth at the end of 2024.

This Q4 figure is made up of spending by Amex’s large customer and SME clients outside the US and includes a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in total international travel and entertainment (T&E) spending during the quarter, although this latter figure also includes consumer spending.

The international segment was also well ahead of the performance in the US where Q4 commercial customer spending was up by 4 per cent year-on-year, with T&E sales increasing by 5 per cent.

Overall, Amex reported fourth-quarter total revenue up by 9 per cent year-on-year to $17.2 billion, and the company’s net income for the quarter was $2.2 billion, up 12 by per cent. For the whole of 2024, Amex’s net income rose was $10.1 billion, which was an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year.

During an earnings call, Amex chief financial officer Christophe Le Caillec said: “Q4 spend results were strong across our business, and we feel good about the spend acceleration we saw.”

He added that the spending patterns during the first three weeks of January have looked to be “more in line with Q4 trends”.

American Express chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri said there was an “improvement in small business sentiment in the fourth quarter” as Amex’s SME base continued to grow.

“I am confident that we can sustain our strong momentum over the long term, driven by the many attractive opportunities we see across our premium customer base, particularly with Millennial and Gen Z consumers and in key international markets, along with our operating expense leverage which enables us to continue investing at high levels to drive growth,” added Squeri in Amex’s earnings release.