June 28, 2010
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News: American Express Spends Millions On Lobbying
Have you ever wondered where you money goes when you pay an annual credit card fee? Well, a portion of it goes to pay operating expenses for the company and a large portion of it goes to support lawmakers and lobby for or against currently debated legislation. Over the recent few years, card companies have devoted a great deal of their earnings lobbying against credit card reform and interchange fees. If consumers are interested in finding out more on exacting the amount of money each company donated to senators and representatives, the information can be easily found on Congress's web site. Meanwhile, a major credit card company has voluntarily reported on the amount of money it spent lobbying against or for recent legislation.
American Express Co. said they spent over $890,00 just in the first quarter of 2010 lobbying the federal government against financial reform. American Express is one the nation's largest credit card networks and is unique in that it also is a credit lender. Therefore, the debate over electronic payment processing fees played a large role in the giant credit card company's decision to spend nearly a million dollars on lobbying. Last year during the same time frame, American Express spent $830,000; however, the company spent over $1.07 million during fourth quarter 2009. It's not hard to do the math if you want to approximate how much the company spent lobbying lawmakers over a one year period.
The majority of the company's money and time was dedicated to lobbying Congress and the Federal Government on credit card legislation and the creation of a Consumer Financial Services Protection Agency. Both pieces of legislation have been passed. Of course, the company also spent time and money lobbying over debit card swipe fees, payment card data security standards, and health insurance issues. Although the company received $3.39 billion of taxpayers money under the Fed Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it lobbied on legislation relating to the development of the program. American Express also lobbied the White House, Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Service, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.