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INDEXCLOSE CHANGE Dow Jones Industrial 8986.64 +118.32 S&P 500 1120.01 +11.86 NYSE 582.04 +5.63 Nasdaq 1852.96 +5.30 AMEX...
American Express's turnaround surprised everyone, including H. Spencer Nilson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks spending on credit cards. Nilson is impressed that Amex was able to "come away with any kind of stabilization." He applauds the company for its "significant advances in improving product line and in growth of cardholders and volume. I would not have given them any chance of doing that several years...
...part Amex vows that the wars have just begun. "We are by no means uncorking the champagne bottle," says Chenault, 46, Golub's heir apparent and the architect of the company's comeback in cards. "But we are very much in the game, which is a very different situation from three or four years ago." Chenault still winces at the memory of a focus group back then, when the holder of a rival card that earned free airline miles declared, "I want to go with you guys, but you guys are so stupid that you're not offering this product...
Golub's most ambitious plan so far remains only a gleam in his eye. He wants to transform the credit-card business by plugging U.S. banks into the American Express network and thereby enabling the lenders to issue Amex credit cards. That's the last thing Visa and MasterCard want to see happen, and they've stymied Golub with bylaws that prevent their U.S. bank partners from offering other cards. Golub may get some help from the Justice Department, which is reportedly investigating the competitive behavior of the two big credit-card associations...
...Britain's NatWest and France's Credit Lyonnais now put their names on American Express cards. As a result, Golub says, the number of merchants that accept American Express plastic outside the U.S. "is coming up rapidly." That means the card will be even less exclusive than ever, but Amex has learned that it no longer pays to thumb its nose at the masses...