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TRS Global Establishment Services and Travelers Cheque Group
By combining Global Establishment Services and the Travelers Cheque Group, we are
bringing together the organization that signs and services merchants that accept
the American Express Card with the business that is charged with expanding the
acceptance of our oldest product, the American Express Travelers Cheque.
As with our large Corporate Services clients, many of our largest and
fastest-growing merchants operate across regions around the world. By taking a
global approach to Establishment Services, we can improve merchant satisfaction
by serving our key merchant partners on a global basis. Additionally, we believe
we can accelerate growth of promising new revenue-generating distribution
channels, such as ATMs and the Internet.
Over the past few years, the progress we have made in closing our merchant
coverage gaps, both in the United States and internationally, has been nothing
short of dramatic. And, during 2000, we continued to see strong progress in
merchant signings worldwide.
In the United States, some of the major accounts we signed included the
supermarkets of Supervalu Inc.; John Hancock Life Insurance; Arby's ; KFC; the
telecommunications service provider Avaya; and airport parking locations within
the three New York metropolitan airports operated by the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey.
In International, we signed Carrefour supermarkets in Brazil and Argentina, Marks
& Spencer in the United Kingdom, and Arrow Pharmaceuticals and API
Pharmaceuticals in Australia, among others.
As a result of these signings, our spend coverage improved again in 2000 both in
the U.S. and in International, where we are now at more than 95 percent and 88
percent respectively. We also made progress signing online merchants during the
year, with most of the top 500 U.S. sites now accepting the card.
Another significant accomplishment was our partnership with JCB Co., Ltd. (Japan
Credit Bureau), the largest card issuer and merchant acquirer in Japan. Our
agreement provides for reciprocal card acceptance, merchant acquisition and
merchant processing covering five markets, including Japan. This agreement is a
major step forward for us in gaining merchant coverage and facilitating card
growth in a very important market.
Additionally, we are the second-largest owner/operator of ATMs in the United
States. As recently as two years ago, we owned only 200 machines; at year end we
owned more than 8,600 terminals. The growth reflects a number of acquisitions,
including the purchase of more than 4,500 ATMs from EDS. These machines are
located in 7-Eleven stores in 27 states and the District of Columbia. We are
branding our entire ATM network with the name ATM AxisSM, and we plan to offer a
variety of products and services beyond dispensing cash, such as money transfer
services, stored value cards and retail couponing.
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