AmEx widens global reach as card acceptance tops 190 million merchant locations

Sept 28 — American Express said on Monday its credit cards can now be ​used at over 190 million merchant locations worldwide, with acceptance outside the US having more than doubled over the past four years.

The ‌expansion attempts to address a longstanding gap between AmEx and rival card networks Visa and Mastercard, which ⁠have historically had broader merchant acceptance ​outside the US and greater scale ⁠in many key international markets.

The company said it focused on strengthening acceptance ‌in locations where ‌card members were spending their time, including travel destinations such as ⁠Barcelona, Hong Kong, Paris and Sicily.

"We also ⁠think about locations that will be popular for big events, so say, sporting events, and that's driven us to focus on places like Mexico City and Melbourne," Anna Marrs, group president, global merchant and network services at AmEx, told Reuters in an interview.

The company, Marrs said, has ‌also targeted other categories such as restaurants that ​drive card-member spending.

For card networks, acceptance is key to driving spending. The more places a card can be used, the more likely customers are to use it for everyday purchases, travel and other expenses, creating more transaction volume and revenue.

In the most recent quarter, billed business, a measure of spending on AmEx issued cards, jumped 9% to $455.8 billion.

The push comes ​as it seeks to capture a greater share of international spending from younger ‌customers, who have become ‌an ⁠increasingly important part of its user base.

The company reported 10% growth in quarterly revenue to $19.6 billion in July.

AmEx said it continues to deepen relationships with global payment platforms, payment facilitators, licensed partners and local acquirers to expand acceptance at ‌scale.

"We continue to see ​opportunities all over the world," Marrs said. "We're ‌not yet resting in ⁠terms of the ​coverage gains that we want to drive."

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by ​Shilpi Majumdar)

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