American Express card spending rose 9% as premium fee income kept growing

American Express reported second-quarter 2026 total revenues net of interest expense of $19.6 billion, up 10% from a year earlier, with net income of $3.1 billion and diluted earnings per share of $4.53. Total billed business — the total dollar volume charged on Amex cards — grew 9% year over year to $455.8 billion, and company commentary pointed to U.S. consumer card member spending rising 11% through the first half of the year as a driver of that momentum.

Amex’s model differs from a typical card network in that it both issues cards to consumers and businesses and operates the payment network those cards run on, capturing revenue from card fees, interest on revolving balances, and merchant discount fees in one integrated business rather than splitting that economics with a separate issuing bank. That structure has historically made premium annual fees — on cards like the Platinum and Gold lines — a meaningfully larger share of Amex’s revenue mix than for competitors, and continued billed-business growth at high-single-digit rates suggests that premium-fee strategy is still resonating with its cardholder base.

The 11% consumer spending growth figure is notably higher than the overall 9% billed-business growth rate, which implies commercial and small-business card spending grew more slowly by comparison, or that the mix shifted toward higher-growth consumer segments during the period. Amex has leaned into affluent and aspirational consumer segments in recent years through card benefit refreshes, and sustained double-digit consumer spending growth is consistent with that positioning holding up even amid broader questions about the health of discretionary consumer spending.

Compared to card-issuing banks that rely on partner networks like Visa or Mastercard, Amex’s closed-loop model gives it more direct visibility into spending trends but also means its results are a more concentrated bet on affluent-consumer and premium-business card usage specifically, rather than a broad cross-section of card spending across income tiers. The quarter’s growth rates, if sustained, would suggest that segment of the market remains resilient, though a single quarter’s billed-business figures are not a guarantee of the trend continuing through the back half of the year.