The news: American Express is not content with being Gen Z’s favorite card. Now, it wants to be Gen Z’s favorite bank.

Amex has long touted the high share of new card acquisitions that millennials and Gen Zers compose—the two cohorts made up 65% of global new accounts and 38% of US card spend in Q2 2026, per Amex’s most recent earnings.

But this quarter, Amex also reported that about 60% of all consumer deposit accounts were held by millennials and Gen Zers—roughly $70 billion in deposits, per EMARKETER calculations. Consumer and small-business deposits were up 9% YoY, per CFO Christophe Le Caillec. Total deposits, including corporate, rose 5% to $157 billion, per Amex’s earnings.

The rest of the earnings story: American Express narrowly missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations, topping $19.6 billion, vs $19.7 billion, per S&P Global. Earnings per share beat expectations at $4.53. US card spend growth accelerated to 11%.

Despite that, Amex’s stock fell TK% by market close after the card company reported that marketing and card benefits tied to the Platinum refresh sent expenses up 12% YoY.

• Card member services expenses—linked to non-rewards credit card benefits—rocketed 50% YoY to $1.95 billion.
• Rewards expenses rose 9% to $5.05 billion.
• And marketing expenses were up 6% to $1.65 billion.

At the same time, net card fee growth has slowed from 20% a year ago to 15%, though Amex expects that to reaccelerate in the second half of the year as more of the Platinum card’s back book transitions over to the new fee.

Implications for issuers: Amex uses two key approaches to attracting younger customers—exclusive experiences and lucrative rewards. That’s also how Amex has built its deposit share: Amex’s flagship consumer banking product is a high-yield savings account, currently at a 3% APY. Its rewards checking account also offers 1% APY.

At $157 billion in deposits, Amex doesn’t even break the top 20 banks in the US. But it’s nearly doubled its deposits in five years. If Amex can parlay its lifestyle branding and robust rewards into a full-service finance app, other issuers may have a hard time retaining valuable deposits from the next generation of affluent consumers.

But Amex also needs to prove to investors that profligate benefit expenses will translate into boosted revenues; otherwise, it may be forced to pare back some of those rewards and cede competitive ground.