After bottoming out at US$82.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020, spending on American Express corporate cards rebounded to US$98.5 billion during Q3, but that figure still was down 23 per cent year over year as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to hamper corporate spending, Amex's Global Commercial Services division on reported on Friday.

Average Q3 cardholder spending also was up compared with the second quarter, increasing to US$6,776 from Q2's US$5,645 average, but was 21 per cent lower compared with the previous year. Amex GCS reported 14.5 million cards in force during the third quarter, down from 14.8 million in Q3 2019.?

Third-quarter T&E spending on all Amex cards was down 69 per cent year over year¡ªan improvement over the 87 per cent year-on-year freefall during Q2, the first quarter in which the corporate card giant felt the full force of Covid-19's devastating impact on the global economy. Meanwhile, airline-related spending ticked up to 1 per cent of total spending volume on all Amex cards, in Q3, after comprising statistically 0 per cent of such spending in the previous quarter.?

Overall, the GCS division reported third-quarter net income of US$220 million, a 60 per cent drop from US$568 million a year ago. Total expenses were US$2 billion, down 14 per cent from US$2.4 billion a year ago. The decrease "primarily reflected lower client incentives and other customer engagement costs due to a decline in card member spending," Amex said.