Becoming American Express:
150+ Years of Reinvention
and Customer Service
INNOVATION AND EXPANSION
In 1882, American Express launched the money order
business, which proved an almost instant success. The company introduced the
world’s first travelers cheque in 1891 and within ten years was selling more
than $6 million in cheques annually.
In the course of building the money order and travelers cheque businesses, the company established correspondent banking relationships with a number of European banks that accepted and encashed the products. As a result, the American Express name became increasingly visible throughout Europe. In 1895, the company established its first European office, in Paris, at 6, rue Halévy, followed by the 1896 opening of an office at 3 Waterloo Place in London. By 1910, American Express had expanded to Southampton, Liverpool, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Naples and Genoa.
Although foreign exchange transactions were conducted as early as 1895 by the Paris office, the official initiation of the company’s overseas banking operations took place in 1904, when the Rotterdam office opened in Netherlands and began conducting commercial banking services.
Meanwhile, back in New York, millions of immigrants were entering the United States through Ellis Island. After uncovering several examples of flagrant swindling among the independent moneychangers on the premises, the U.S. Immigration Department awarded a contract to American Express in 1905 to provide official currency exchange services. Over the years, countless newcomers completed their first business transactions in the United States at the American Express teller’s window on Ellis Island.
A singular historic event – the outbreak of World War I in Europe – brought about the next dramatic transformation of American Express and more fully shaped it, willingly or unwillingly, into a travel services company.
