American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

I think some folks might have been expecting that to start happening already at the beginning of this year, but clearly it’s not happening. So, I’m wondering how many – how much more we’ve got to go on that? Thank you. Steve Squeri Well, I think you still have quite a bit to go on T&E and especially as corporations start to bring back their T&E spending as well. And T&E spending is up in every single segment that we have. I mean, we talked about total T&E up 39%, consumer is up 30%, commercial is up 41%. It just keeps – it keeps growing. And we talked about international, up 59%. So, we still think we have more room to grow. And I talked about bookings with airlines, and airlines will also expand their capacity. And as they expand their capacity, we’ll continue to grow with them.

So, I think there’s still more upside in airlines. And when there’s more upside in airlines, it becomes more upside in lodging.And people have gotten used to eating out. And the restaurant spending is – if you ask me about anything that surprises me, it would be restaurant spending continuing to be as strong as it is. But I think for us, a lot of that has to do with Resy. And the fact that we are able to probably even get a larger share of our card members’ restaurant spending as they book their reservations through Resy – and the other thing I’d point about Resy, Resy has been a really nice addition to our acquisition of new cardholders who have a propensity to want to – eat at restaurants and T&E. So, I think you’re still going to see very strong T&E throughout this year.

It will certainly outpace our Goods and Services.And we’re getting back – we’re continuing to climb back. If you remember, pre-pandemic, we were around 70-30 in terms of our spending: 70% Goods and Services and 30% T&E. And there really is no reason that should not go back to the way it was. So, we think we have upside in T&E.Kerri Bernstein Okay. And with that, operator will close the call. Thank you again for joining today’s call and for your continued interest in American Express. The IR team will be available for any follow-up questions. Operator, back to you.Operator Ladies and gentlemen, the webcast replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at ir.americanexpress.com shortly after the call. You can also access a digital replay of the call at (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415, access code 13736900 after 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 20 through April 27.

That will conclude our conference call for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.