American Express Plans Global E-Payment Services

The credit card we can't leave home without is going global. American Express plans to unveil a series of global E-payment services for business customers this spring. The corporate-card market leader, with 53 million cardholders, is putting together a suite of services designed to help customers move to automated purchasing "whether they are using software like Ariba or Oracle, or in a marketplace environment, or using something homegrown," a company official says.

American Express already has revealed partnerships with Commerce One Inc. in Europe and Ariba Inc. in Asia. Before they come to fruition, though, all these plans may have to be approved by a new management team. Wall Street is awash with rumors today about the possible acquisition of American Express by everyone from CitiGroup to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to American International Group. The company declined to comment on industry rumors about its future.