American Express' earnings fall, but still beat estimates

In prepared remarks, AmEx CEO and Chairman Kenneth Chenault said the quarter's results "reflected strong, underlying growth in our lending portfolio, along with higher Card Member spending and fee income."

The deal forced AmEx to sell its credit card portfolio to Citigroup, and Costco will be transitioning its credit card payment processing to Visa later this year.

[...] the company has been trying to retain those customers by selling them new AmEx-branded cards.