The recovery in spending on American Express corporate cards continued during the first three months of 2021, with Q1-billed business for the card giant's Global Commercial Services division down 10 per cent year over year—an improvement from Q4 2020, during which volume dropped 18 per cent year over year.
Amex on Friday reported total GCS billed business of US$104 billion for the first quarter of 2021, down slightly from US$109.1 billion in the previous quarter and 10 per cent lower than Q1 2020's US$116.1 billion.
But Amex corporate card spending showed continued resurgence from the low point reached in Q2 2020, in which GCS reported just US$82.8 billion in billed business as the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the global economy—a 36 per cent plummet over the previous year. In each quarter since, GCS year-over-year spending declines have slowed steadily, coming in at 23 per cent in the third quarter of 2020, 18 per cent in the fourth quarter and 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2021.
Average quarterly cardholder spending continued a similar recovery, with the most recent quarter's average of US$7,159 down 9 per cent from the first quarter of 2020, compared with the 16 per cent year-over-year decline in fourth quarter of 2020, 21 per cent in the third quarter and 36 per cent in the Covid-ravaged second quarter of 2020.
Global T&E-related spending on all Amex cards in force was down 49 per cent year over year in first quarter of 2021, compared with 64 per cent in the prior quarter. Meanwhile airline-related spending ticked up to comprise 2 per cent of total Amex spending volume in the first quarter after making up 1 per cent of such spend each over the previous two quarters and statistically 0 per cent in Q2 the second quarter of 2020.