Can AmEx Defend its Small-Business Edge Against Agile Fintechs?

American Express Company AXP can defend its small-business franchise, but the pressure is greatest in the middle market, where fintechs such as Ramp and Brex compete with fast expense tools and integrated software. The latest quarter showed that AmEx is still growing in this segment and addressing the issues with new launches.

Commercial Services billed business grew 5% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting accelerating spending growth among U.S. small and mid-sized business customers, improving from 4% in the first quarter and 2% a year earlier, while segment revenue rose 7% to $4.5 billion. Small-business card balances increased 8% to $56.2 billion.

Management also launched a pilot of its new expense-management platform for middle-market customers and added a $300 ChatGPT Business credit to U.S. Business Platinum and Gold cards. These moves strengthen the value proposition beyond payments. Still, fintech competition remains a risk because software-led rivals can win customers through simplicity and workflow integration. AXP’s advantage lies in its brand, rewards, lending capabilities and merchant network, giving it a base to defend share.

AXP’s credit quality remains strong, but with delinquency rates already low, further improvement may be limited. In the second quarter, the 30-plus-day delinquency rate for small-business card balances fell to 1.3% from 1.4% a year earlier, while the principal-only net write-off rate held steady at 2.3%.

Consumer credit also improved, with delinquencies declining to 1.1% from 1.2% and write-offs easing to 1.9% from 2%. Lower delinquencies also drove a $191 millionreserve release during the quarter, helping credit-loss provisions fall 23% to $1.1 billion.

How are Peers Placed?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM has considerable scale in small business, serving 7.4 million small-business customers at 2025 year-end and providing $17 billion of credit to U.S. small businesses in the first half of 2026. However, JPM’s second-quarter Business Banking average loans declined 5% year over year to $18.3 billion, while originations fell 16%. Meanwhile, Synchrony Financial SYF is expanding its business-credit presence through commercial cards and receivables products. Commercial credit products reached $2.7 billion at June-end, up from $1.8 billion at 2025-end, aided by SYF’s acquisition of Lowe’s commercial card receivables. These trends show that AXP faces well-funded competitors pursuing business customers through different channels.

AmEx’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of AXP have declined 9.9% year to date, underperforming the broader industry’s 6.3% fall.

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From a valuation standpoint, AmEx trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17.19X, higher than the industry average of 16.86X. It carries a Value Score of C.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AmEx’s 2026 earnings implies a 14.9% rise year over year, followed by 14.6% growth next year.

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The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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