American Express is pursuing premium, membership-led growth while expanding its card base and investing in technology, partnerships, and newer customer experiences. This filing is a routine monthly credit check on whether that growth is bringing meaningful deterioration in the U.S. portfolios.
| Metric | August 2026 | July 2026 | June 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Consumer card balances | $114.2B | $113.1B | $113.8B |
| U.S. Consumer 30-days-past-due | 1.1% | 1.1% | 1.1% |
| U.S. Consumer net write-off rate | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1.4% |
| U.S. Small Business card balances | $46.1B | $46.1B | $45.9B |
| U.S. Small Business 30-days-past-due | 1.3% | 1.3% | 1.4% |
| U.S. Small Business net write-off rate | 2.2% | 2.6% | 2.3% |
| Combined card balances held for investment | $160.3B | $159.2B | $159.7B |
| Lending Trust annualized default rate | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.7% |
( U.S. Consumer and U.S. Small Business Delinquency and Write-off Rate Statistics)
The portfolio continued to grow without a delinquency breakout. Combined U.S. Consumer and U.S. Small Business balances increased to $160.3 billion from $159.2 billion in July, while 30-day delinquency rates held at 1.1% for consumers and 1.3% for small businesses. The filing explicitly excludes card balances classified as held for sale. 〔0〕
Credit signals were mixed rather than uniformly worsening. Consumer net write-offs held at July’s 1.7%, but remained above June’s 1.4%; small-business write-offs improved to 2.2% from 2.6% in July. June is also a noisy comparison because AmEx sold previously written-off balances, reducing that month’s reported rates by approximately 0.3 percentage points for Consumer and 0.1 points for Small Business. 〔1〕
The Lending Trust data broadly confirm stability, not acceleration. Its annualized default rate eased to 1.0% from 1.1% in July, while defaulted amounts and 30-plus-day delinquencies stayed at $0.04 billion and $0.2 billion, respectively. Month-to-month comparisons remain imperfect because the trust covers only revolve-eligible securitized balances and uses different calculation mechanics.
Relative to expectations, this is mostly confirmation. There is no standard published consensus for a scheduled monthly credit-metrics disclosure, so the practical benchmark is the prior month and AmEx’s established expectation of best-in-class, manageable credit performance. The August data do not show a material deterioration, but the higher consumer loss rate keeps the update from being cleanly positive.
Bottom line: AmEx’s August credit picture remains controlled as balances expand, but the portfolio is not improving uniformly. The filing matters mainly as confirmation that credit costs have not yet become a new business problem, rather than as a fresh catalyst.
Read the original 8-K on SEC EDGAR ↗