Introduction American Express Inc. was incorporated in the year 1965 as a New York Corporation. Its primary objective was to serve as an international money payment, interacting and travel services Company throughout the world with branches in principal global cities. The main lines of its business have been in the following areas:   * Global credit and debit card networking source.   * Green, Gold, Platinum Charge card and credit card for different varieties of consumers and global business travelers and fliers. According to the Brand Survey conducted by Interbrand, American Express enjoys the 14 th Spot in the List of Top 100 Global Brands in 2006 period only goes after citation (The 100 Top Global brands 2006, 2000-2007 ). The elements of analysis based on the Annual reports of Amex would be:  1. Analysis of revenues net of interest, expenses  2. Analysis of returns on average equities  3. Dilution of earnings per share, from continuing operations  4. Current ratios  5. Fixed assets turnover ratios  6. Debts to total assets ratios.  7. returns to shareholders on total assets ratios  8. Five years profitability analysis  9. Five years profits earnings ratios. Present scenario American Express has been going through a difficult phase in recent years, mainly due to strong competition in the cards and travel trade markets. In order to consolidate its position, American Express has taken recourse to enter into affiliations with around 40 other credit card companies in order to offset their competitors and retain vital market share. Besides, credit card markets are high risks since the occurrences of default and non-payments by cardholders are very high, and there are quite frequent occurrences of bad debts and non-realization of bills in credit card segments. The main reasons could be that credit cards do not carry collateral securities and the company could only proceed legally against the defaulter for non-payment of accumulated debts. Besides, the global credit card has been shorn of exclusivity, and clients are often not fully screened before being offered credit card facilities, with the net result that risks of default and non-payments run high and many customers may vanish or become bankrupt after using substantial credit limits, incurring heavy losses for the company. Discuss charts before they are inserted into your paper. This chart is somewhat hard to read…can you make it a bit bigger? Consolidated financial highlights: Uncommon Service, P. 16. The lure of competition While the credit card company needs to ensure that credit cards are utilized by genuine customers, there are also the risks that potential customers could be lured away by competitors, offering more attractive deals and facilities to customers. Therefore, it becomes necessary for credit card companies to woo customers who may not always be high potential customers but to increase customer base and generate business for the Company. Its ambitious credit card network can be seen from the fact that “American Express has issued more than 86 million cards worldwide page # needed” (American Express company, 2008). From the graphs number graph, it is discernible that the growth of the Company is present, despite tough competition in these areas, and American Expre