WASHINGTON (Nov. 10) - The Federal Reserve on Monday granted a request by American Express Co. to become a bank holding company, opening the door for the credit card giant to accept deposits and permanently access financing from the Fed. The Fed said it had approved the application for American Express and a related company, American Express Travel Related Services Co. Inc., to become bank holding companies. The approval represented the latest reshaping of the U.S. financial services industry, which is undergoing its worst credit crisis in decades. In announcing the action, the Fed cited "emergency conditions."
Scary thought. Amex cardholders will probably forced into opening checking accounts with Amex so the co. will have the right to setoff if credit card payments are late or defaulting.
American Express has total consolidated assets of about $127 billion and two bank units: American Express Centurion Bank, which operated as an industrial loan company under Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. supervision, and American Express Bank, which was regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision. Each has assets of about $25 billion and deposits of about $7.2 billion, the Fed said. Centurion is being converted to a bank, according to the Fed order. Bloomberg.com: U.S.
I wish these banks would just erase all our debts cc I mean and lets start fresh-the government is rolling with 50 billion here 100 billion there-why not credit cards? What would another couple of trillion dollars mean to this country anyway?
Amex just asked for 3 billon dollars from uncle sam!Their afraid we might not charge again if we get out of debt.
They are becoming banks so they can get of the piece of our tax dollar pie...rather than backing mortgages, it looks like will be shoring up unsecured debts and depreciating assets. The TARP is Now the CARP at The Brian Sullivan Blog
i.e. credit card debt I want my share and not a chickens s**t 600 bones.I'm mad as hell and i'll probaly get madder and have to put up with it.
