Shares of American Express fell after the Wall Street Journal reported that the investigative departments of three US financial institutions were investigating the card issuer’s selling practices.
The company’s stock fell 1.3% on Thursday after falling a whopping 5% earlier.
The offices of the Federal Reserve’s Inspectors General, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are investigating whether New York-based AmEx has printed its cards on small business customers using deceptive tactics and whether customers have been harmed, according to the Journal. .
Citing current or former employees of the publisher, the Journal reported in March that in an effort to boost sales, some AmEx employees misrepresented card rewards and fees or issued cards that customers had not wanted.
AmEx said in a statement Thursday that it “has put in place robust compliance policies and controls, and [does] not tolerate misconduct. The company added that it participated in the regulatory review of small business card practices that took place in 2015 and 2016.
“We conducted a detailed, independent review of these sales during this period and found no evidence of a pattern of misleading sales practices,” said AmEx. “The commercial acquisition group responsible for these sales represented approximately 0.25 percent of the 65 million new cards that American Express acquired worldwide between 2014 and 2019. We take these matters seriously and will continue to work with our regulators.”