American Express Company, a payments and travel company, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. It operates in two groups, the Global Consumer Group and the Global Business-to-Business Group. The Global Consumer Group offers a range of products and services including, charge and lending card products, consumer travel services, and stored value products, such as Travelers Cheques and prepaid products. The Business-to-Business Group provides business travel, and corporate cards and other expense management products and services; network services and merchant acquisition, and merchant processing for the company’s network partners and proprietary payments businesses; and point-of-sale, back-office, and marketing products and services for merchants. The company also publishes luxury lifestyle magazines. American Express sells its products and services to various customer groups, including consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and banking and financial institutions through various channels, such as direct mail, the Internet, employee and independent third party sales forces, and direct response advertising. American Express was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.