Meet the 11 execs at Amex driving the card giant’s digital strategy

• The adoption of digital payments has taken off amid the coronavirus pandemic, as consumers look to avoid cash.
• American Express, both a card network and credit issuer, is riding the digital wave with products like contactless cards, partnerships with players like Venmo, and QR codes to pay.
• From fraud monitoring to credit decisioning to exploring new ways to pay, here are the 11 power players leading Amex’s digital push.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

While the adoption of digital payments has been increasing for some time, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated consumers’ move toward non-cash options when it comes time to pay. 

And this move away from cash is good news for card companies like American Express. 

In an effort to capture that non-cash spend, Amex is pushing more digital payments options, like contactless cards, mobile wallets, and QR codes to pay.

It’s also moving beyond cards with partnerships to help facilitate more transactions. In 2019, Amex expanded its partnership with Paypal to offer its customers the ability to send Venmo requests when they want to split bills on the Amex app.

And whereas Mastercard and Visa offer payment rails, but partner with banks like Chase and Wells Fargo to issue consumer credit, Amex manages it all themselves.

Read more: POWER PLAYERS: Meet the 8 PayPal execs shaping the payment giant’s future as its stock rockets to record highs and e-commerce surges

Luke Gebb, head of Amex Digital Labs, told Business Insider it’s an important distinction that separates the card giant from its rivals, especially when looking to collaborate with tech companies moving into the payments space.

“Having the end-to-end data set is really big and really important for a lot of the things that we do,” he said. “It also gives us a different angle when we’re working with a player like Apple or Amazon,” Gebb said. 

“We hear that we’re able to move faster, because Visa needs to show up with Chase, and we can show up with two parts of American Express,” he added.

Having data on both the transaction side and the consumer behavior side is helpful, especially when thinking about targeted consumer offers like rewards, said Gebb.

From fraud prevention to credit decisions and building new ways to pay, here are the 11 execs driving every aspect of Amex’s digital payments strategy.