11 Jan 2013

American Express to shed 5400 jobs worldwide

7:08 pm on 11 January 2013

American Express has announced plans to cut 5400 jobs worldwide from its total workforce of 63,500 by the end of this year.

The credit card provider said it took almost $US600 million in after-tax charges in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The company said that these charges would halve its net profit for the quarter from $US1.2 billion to $US637 million, the BBC reports.

It said the majority of the job losses would be in its travel business which is "being reinvented as a result of the digital revolution".

American Express said it was having to adapt parts of the business as more customers make payments online or via mobile phones.

The job losses would be spread proportionally between US and international markets.

Charges include restructuring costs of $US287 million mostly related to redundancy payments, $US212 million for Membership Rewards expenses and $US95 million for card member reimbursements

Total revenues rose 5% on the year to $US8.1 billion.