AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY

U.S. company founded on March 18, 1850, as an express-transportation company, but today operating as a worldwide organization providing primarily travel-related and insurance services and international finance operations and banking. Headquarters are in New York City. The original company resulted from the consolidation of three companies active in the express transport of goods, valuables, and specie between New York City and Buffalo and points in the Midwest: (1) Livingston, Fargo & Company (formerly Western Express), founded in 1845 by Henry Wells (180578) and William G. Fargo (181881), later of Wells Fargo fame; (2) Wells & Co. (formerly Livingston, Wells & Co.), cofounded by Wells in 1846 and under his ownership at the time of the merger; and (3) Butterfield & Wasson, founded by John Butterfield (180169) and James D. Wasson. American Express was at first an unincorporated association of investors headed by Wells as president and Fargo as secretary. By the end of the American Civil War, its business had so flourished, with some 900 offices in 10 states, that it attracted competition in 1866 in the formation of Merchants Union Express Company. For two years the two companies engaged in cutthroat competition and, on the verge of financial exhaustion, finally merged on Nov. 25, 1868, to form the American Merchants Union Express Company, with Fargo succeeding as president. The company was renamed American Express Company in 1873. On Fargo's death in 1881, his younger brother, James Congdell Fargo (18291915), became president and ruled for 33 years, introducing the American Express Money Order (1882) and the American Express Travelers Cheque (1891) and opening the first European office in Paris (1895), where various touring and banking activities were soon handled along with the company's traditional freight business. The first separate Travel Department was established in 1915 in New York City. On July 1, 1918, the U.S. federal government nationalized the express industry, consolidating all domestic express operations in the American Railway Express Company (reorganized and denationalized in 1929). Deprived of its express business, American Express turned almost wholly to its travel and banking operations (though it continued its international freight business until its sale in 1970). American Express Company (newly incorporated in 1965) now operates primarily in four areas: travel, insurance, banking, and investment services. In travel, it provides travelers checks, credit cards (American Express and Optima), travel agencies, tour packages, and agencies for motel and car-rental reservations. In insurance, it has owned since 1968 the Fireman's Fund American Insurance Companies group, which offers a wide range of insurance policies for individuals or groups. In banking, its American Express International Banking Corp. and subsidiaries conduct commercial banking in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere. In investment services, the company built a large network of operations through acquisitions made in the 1980s, which resulted in the subsidiary Shearson Lehman/Brothers, one of the largest investment services firms in the United States, with operations in securities underwriting, and distribution, investment management, options and commodities brokerage, real-estate financing, corporate finance, and money-markets trading. American Express also has diversified holdings in such areas as education, publishing, research, geophysical exploration, and cable television. In 1984 American Express acquired Investors Diversified Services Inc., a large Minneapolis-based insurance, mutual fund, and financial advisory concern.