Word: amexco
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Amexco's enormous holdings of all kinds of currencies amply insulate it against any monetary crisis. Executives at Lower Manhattan headquarters will not say how many dollars they unloaded just before the greenback's most recent fall, but money men believe that the company came through the ordeal with a tidy trading profit. More important, Amexco officers saw the succession of crises as an opportunity. They heavily advertised their 250 overseas offices (which handily outnumber the 127 U.S. embassies around the world) as a haven where tourists could count on turning unlimited amounts of dollar travelers checks into...
...policy has paid off handsomely by helping to boom Amexco's sales of travelers checks to about $5 billion a year, or two-thirds of all those sold in the world. Many of these sales earn Amexco a double profit, because buyers of the purple papers are making what amounts to an interest-free loan to the company. Right now, Amexco holds nearly $1 billion in cash paid by customers for travelers checks that the buyers have not yet used. Officers have salted most of it away in municipal bonds, which yield as much as 5% a year taxfree...
...Amexco hardly needs currency crises to prosper. Diversification is turning it into more of an insurance and banking colossus than a travel company. Fireman's Fund, a group of life and property insurers that American Express acquired in 1968, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the company's $1.6 billion revenues last year. In addition Amexco runs an international banking division with $1.8 billion in assets, manages five mutual funds, and owns 25% of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a major Wall Street investment house...