(1) Represents income from continuing operations or net income, as applicable, less (i) preferred shares dividends and related accretion of $72 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, and (ii) other adjustments of $4 million and $6 million for the quarters ended March 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively.

(2) At March 31, 2009, tangible common equity ("TCE") was $9.4 billion, representing common shareholders' equity (i.e., shareholders' equity less preferred shares) of $12.4 billion less goodwill and other intangibles of $3.0 billion. TCE is, in management's view, a useful measure of the company's capital.

(3) The estimate for the fourth quarter assumes the U.S. unemployment rate reaches 9.7 percent in December 2009. The "managed basis" presentation includes on-balance sheet cardmember loans and off-balance sheet securitized cardmember loans. The difference between the "owned basis" (GAAP) information and "managed basis" information is attributable to the effects of securitization activities. The company is not presenting estimates of owned net write-off rates comparable to the managed data above because the owned write-off rates are not determinable at this time. The company does not believe such estimated net write-off rates on an owned and managed basis would be materially different.

(4)Please refer to the information set forth on Exhibit 1 for further discussion of the owned and managed basis presentations.

EXHIBIT 1

AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
U.S. Card Services

(Billions, except percentages)

(A) "Owned," a GAAP basis measurement, reflects only cardmember loans included in the company's Consolidated Balance Sheets.

(B) The managed basis presentation assumes that there have been no off-balance sheet securitization transactions, i.e., all securitized cardmember loans and related income effects are reflected as if they were in the company's balance sheets and income statements, respectively. The difference between the "owned basis" (GAAP) information and "managed basis" information is attributable to the effects of securitization activities. The company presents U.S. Card Services information on a managed basis because that is the way the company's management views and manages the business. Management believes that a full picture of trends in the company's cardmember lending business can only be derived by evaluating the performance of both securitized and non-securitized cardmember loans. Management also believes that use of a managed basis presentation presents a more comprehensive portrayal of the key dynamics of the cardmember lending business. Irrespective of the on and off-balance sheet funding mix, it is important for management and investors to see metrics for the entire cardmember lending portfolio because they are more representative of the economics of the aggregate cardmember relationships and ongoing business performance and trends over time. It is also important for investors to see the overall growth of cardmember loans and related revenue in order to evaluate market share. These metrics are significant in evaluating the company's performance and can only be properly assessed when all non-securitized and securitized cardmember loans are viewed together on a managed basis. The company does not currently securitize international loans.

This release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements, which address the company’s expected business and financial performance, among other matters, contain words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “optimistic,” “intend,” “plan,” “aim,” “will,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “likely,” and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: the company’s ability to manage credit risk related to consumer debt, business loans, merchants and other credit trends, which will depend in part on (i) the economic environment, including, among other things, the housing market, the rates of bankruptcies and unemployment, which can affect spending on card products, debt payments by individual and corporate customers and businesses that accept the company’s card products, (ii) the effectiveness of the company’s credit models and (iii) the ultimate outcome of certain proposed legislative initiatives affecting the credit card business; the impact of the company’s efforts to deal with delinquent cardmembers in the current challenging economic environment, which may affect payment patterns of cardmembers and the perception of the company’s services, products and brands; the company’s near-term write-off rates, including those for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2009, which will depend in part on changes in the level of the company's loan balances, delinquency rates of cardmembers and unemployment and bankruptcy rates; differences between owned (i.e. GAAP) and managed write-off rates, which can be impacted by factors such as the various types of customer accounts in the portfolios of the company and the lending securitization trust; consumer and business spending on the company’s credit and charge card products and Travelers Cheques and other prepaid products and growth in card lending balances, which depend in part on the economic environment, and the ability to issue new and enhanced card and prepaid products, services and rewards programs, and increase revenues from such products, attract new cardmembers, reduce cardmember attrition, capture a greater share of existing cardmembers’ spending, and sustain premium discount rates on its card products in light of regulatory and market pressures, increase merchant coverage, retain cardmembers after low introductory lending rates have expired, and expand the Global Network Services business; the write-off and delinquency rates in the medium- to long-term of cardmembers added by the company during the past few years, which could impact their profitability to the company; the company’s ability to effectively implement changes in the pricing of certain of its products and services; fluctuations in interest rates (including fluctuations in benchmarks, such as LIBOR and other benchmark rates, and credit spreads), which impact the company’s borrowing costs, return on lending products and the value of the company’s investments; the company’s ability to meet its long-term on average and over time financial targets; the actual amount to be spent by the company on marketing, promotion, rewards and cardmember services based on management’s assessment of competitive opportunities and other factors affecting its judgment; the ability to control and manage operating, infrastructure, advertising and promotion expenses as business expands or changes, including the ability to accurately estimate the provision for the cost of the Membership Rewards program; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; the company’s ability to grow its business and generate excess capital and earnings in a manner and at levels that will allow the company to return a portion of capital to shareholders, which will depend on the company’s ability to manage its capital needs, and the effect of business mix, acquisitions and rating agency and regulatory requirements, including those arising from the company’s status as a bank holding company; the ability of the company to meet its objectives with respect to the growth of its brokered retail CD program and brokerage sweep account program and the implementation of its direct deposit initiative; the success of the Global Network Services business in partnering with banks in the United States, which will depend in part on the extent to which such business further enhances the company’s brand, allows the company to leverage its significant processing scale, expands merchant coverage of the network, provides Global Network Services’ bank partners in the United States the benefits of greater cardmember loyalty and higher spend per customer, and merchant benefits such as greater transaction volume and additional higher spending customers; the ability of the Global Network Services business to meet the performance requirements called for by the company’s settlements with MasterCard and Visa; trends in travel and entertainment spending and the overall level of consumer confidence; the uncertainties associated with business acquisitions, including, among others, the failure to realize anticipated business retention, growth and cost savings, as well as the ability to effectively integrate the acquired business into the company’s existing operations; the underlying assumptions and expectations related to the February 2008 sale of the American Express Bank Ltd. businesses and the transaction’s impact on the company’s earnings proving to be inaccurate or unrealized; the success, timeliness and financial impact (including costs, cost savings, and other benefits, including increased revenues), and beneficial effect on the company’s operating expense to revenue ratio, both in the short-term (including during 2009) and over time, of reengineering initiatives being implemented or considered by the company, including cost management, structural and strategic measures such as vendor, process, facilities and operations consolidation, outsourcing (including, among others, technologies operations), relocating certain functions to lower-cost overseas locations, moving internal and external functions to the internet to save costs, and planned staff reductions relating to certain of such reengineering actions; the company’s ability to reinvest the benefits arising from such reengineering actions in its businesses; bankruptcies, restructurings, consolidations or similar events (including, among others, the Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines merger) affecting the airline or any other industry representing a significant portion of the company’s billed business, including any potential negative effect on particular card products and services and billed business generally that could result from the actual or perceived weakness of key business partners in such industries; the triggering of obligations to make payments to certain co-brand partners, merchants, vendors and customers under contractual arrangements with such parties under certain circumstances; a downturn in the company’s businesses and/or negative changes in the company’s and its subsidiaries’ credit ratings, which could result in contingent payments under contracts, decreased liquidity and higher borrowing costs; the ability of the company to satisfy its liquidity needs and execute on its funding plans, which will depend on, among other things, the company’s future business growth, its credit ratings, market capacity and demand for securities offered by the company, performance by the company’s counterparties under its bank credit facilities and other lending facilities, regulatory changes, including changes to the policies, rules and regulations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the company’s ability to securitize and sell receivables and the performance of receivables previously sold in securitization transactions and the company’s ability to meet the criteria for participation in certain liquidity facilities and other funding programs, including the Commercial Paper Funding Facility and the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, being made available through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and other federal departments and agencies; accuracy of estimates for the fair value of the assets in the company’s investment portfolio and, in particular, those investments that are not readily marketable, including the valuation of the interest-only strip relating to the company’s lending securitizations and the ability of our charge card and lending trusts to maintain excess spreads at levels sufficient to avoid material set-asides or early amortization of our charge card and lending securitizations, which will depend on various factors such as income derived from the relevant portfolios and their respective credit performances; the company’s ability to avoid material losses on its investment portfolio, including its investments in state and municipal obligations, the issuers of which could be adversely affected by the challenging economic environment; the company’s ability to invest in technology advances across all areas of its business to stay on the leading edge of technologies applicable to the payment industry; the company’s ability to attract and retain executive management and other key employees in light of the limitations on compensation imposed on participants in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program in which the company is a participant; the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property rights (IP) and avoid infringing the IP of other parties; the potential negative effect on the company’s businesses and infrastructure, including information technology, of terrorist attacks, natural disasters or other catastrophic events in the future; political or economic instability in certain regions or countries, which could affect lending and other commercial activities, among other businesses, or restrictions on convertibility of certain currencies; changes in laws or government regulations; the potential impact of regulations recently adopted by federal bank regulators relating to certain credit and charge card practices, including, among others, the imposition by card issuers of interest rate increases on outstanding balances and the allocation of payments in respect of outstanding balances with different interest rates, which could have an adverse impact on the company’s net income; accounting changes; outcomes and costs associated with litigation and compliance and regulatory matters; and competitive pressures in all of the company’s major businesses. A further description of these and other risks and uncertainties can be found in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, and the company’s other reports filed with the SEC.