Sectivia

American Expressvs.Visa

AXP vs V · both in Payment rails & networks, part of the Banks, payments & capital markets value chain: The networks and processors that take a fee every time a card is swiped — the fee engine.

Visa is about 2.7× larger than American Express by market cap; American Express trades at the lower P/E (21.3 vs 29.6); year to date, Visa leads (−0.5% vs −5.2%).

Side by side

AXPV
Market cap$239B$658B
Price$356.24$354.10
Today+1.6%+1.5%
Return YTD−5.2%−0.5%
Return 1Y+7.8%−1.9%
P/E21.329.6
P/S3.015.3
P/B7.018.4

Data as of 2026-07-13 · updates daily after U.S. close

The two companies

American ExpressAXP

NYSE · USA

A closed-loop network and card issuer in one — it earns fees from merchants and interest from its affluent cardholders, and owns the customer relationship end to end.

Closed-loop networkPremium cardsLender
Full AXP profile →

VisaV

NYSE · USA

The world's largest card network — it does not lend, it takes a small fee on the value of every transaction that runs across its rails. A toll on global spending.

Payment networkFee tollWide moat
Full V profile →

More comparisons in Payment rails & networks

See where AXP and V sit in the full Banks, payments & capital markets map — every segment from suppliers to end markets.Open the Finance value chain →