Chenault Says Amex Upping Cardmember Acquisition Spend

American Express will be spending money to (hopefully) make money.

At the company’s annual investor day on Monday (May 2), Chief Executive Officer Ken Chenault said that the credit card giant would be devoting more money to efforts to acquire more cardholders and also strike more retail partnerships as it moves “with a great sense of urgency” to better its financial performance.

Chenault said that Amex has “ramped up spending” on cardmember efforts, though he did not quantify just how much the ramping up would be ramped.

Key to the urgency: A 2015 that proved to be “disappointing” for investors and the company alike, reported Bloomberg. As is widely known, the firm was hit on Wall Street by the termination of its pact with Costco Wholesale Corp., which was, as the newswire recapped, a significant contributor to the loan book, at 20 percent of loans outstanding. In other relationships, the partnership with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide remains “business as usual,” whereas some analysts have speculated that the preferred guest card tied to the partnership may be on the way out due to the Marriott International buyout of Starwood (since Marriott has its own co-branded program in place with JPMorgan).

Bloomberg noted that the firm got a thumbs-up from one investing titan — none other than Warren Buffett. At his own investor day, held for Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett stated: “I personally feel OK about American Express, and I’m happy to own it.” The revered value investor went on to state that Amex “has been under attack for decades — more intensively lately — and it will continue to be under attack. It’s too big a business and too interesting a business.” He said that he was in agreement with the end of the Costco relationship and also supported Amex management’s decision to repurchase stock in the company.