American Express Company 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

GRI INDEX
BUILDING A SAFE AND SECURE NETWORK
We know that good service means
maintaining consumer trust. So we have
a strong, long-standing commitment
to privacy and data security. We
have a robust privacy program, with
clear policies and governance, so our
customers know they can trust how
we collect, use and protect their
personal information.
Investing in a rigorous
privacy program
Our Global Privacy team helps us protect
our customers’ data and develop practical
ways for managing personal information.
Their work includes:
PROCESSES AND TRAINING
Our Data Protection and Privacy
Principles guide how we collect, use
and process our customers’ personal
information. Additional privacy policies
and controls help our employees
safeguard information. This is reinforced
through mandatory Privacy and Data
Security training for employees.
TECHNOLOGY
We have invested in technology that lets
Card Members opt in or out of marketing
communications and tell us the ways
they’d prefer us to get in touch.
We are proud to have been
rated as one of Ponemon’s
Most Trusted Companies
for Privacy for the past nine
years, and number one in
financial services.
PRIVACY CENTER
Available on AmericanExpress.com, our
Privacy Center gives consumers in the
United States information about our
data protection and privacy principles
and policies.
This rigorous framework helps to
ensure we comply with privacy laws
and regulations and reflect consumers’
expectations for privacy.
Our closed loop network
Our business model means we maintain
direct relationships with both Card
Members and merchants. We operate
a closed loop network that provides us
with information on transactions from
both the Card Member and the merchant
perspective. That means we can provide
customized marketing to merchants and
special offers to Card Members with bestin-class
risk management.
Investing in fraud prevention
Our state-of-the-art monitoring tools,
controls and policies help detect and
prevent fraud, money laundering and
terrorist financing in our operations
around the world. Our data scientists
analyze our closed loop data to predict
needs and prescribe valuable solutions
for our customers, such as fraud alerts,
often in real time.
We have continued to improve fraudrelated
servicing for our Card Members
over the years, including by launching
fraud alerts via email and text message in
many countries. In some countries, we now
provide Card Members with a one-touch
response to confirm charges through
emails, text messages and smartphone
notifications. This means Card Members
can receive an alert and verify a charge
with a simple tap to resolve potential fraud
concerns without requiring a phone call.
To combat the increasing sophistication
and scale of fraud attacks, we combine
our closed loop with machine-learning
algorithms to evaluate thousands of
pieces of information and make a
fraud risk decision on transactions
within two milliseconds.
We have also partnered with merchants
to develop advanced techniques to detect
compromised Card Member account
information, and deployed advanced
authentication solutions to detect
identity theft.
As a result, we have maintained the lowest
fraud rates in the industry for years,
helping us protect our Card Members and
merchants and delivering on our brand
promise of trust, security and service.
Maintaining secure connections
We have promoted the adoption of EMV
technology (named after its founders
Europay, MasterCard and Visa), which
enhances the security of payment
transactions by storing data on a chip
embedded in a payment card. The chip,
working with EMV-enabled terminals,
creates a unique code for each transaction,
which cannot be used again. We are one of
four major payment organizations that is
an equity member in EMVCo.
In 2015, to help educate and assist small
merchants in adopting EMV technology,
we rolled out an EMV assistance program.
We offered U.S. small merchants who
accept American Express and who
upgraded their terminals to EMV access
to a one-time, $100 reimbursement in the
form of an American Express gift card. We
even had a dedicated “American Express
Fraud Squad” visit small merchants in
New York, Atlanta, Miami and Houston to
share information about EMV technology
and our program. Additionally, we provide
online resources to help businesses make
the transition to chip technology.
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