The portal is launching with an initial set of products; ongoing releases are expected to include additional products in new categories.

“American Express has long used APIs to enable selected merchant partners to grow their businesses by engaging their customers who are Card Members in innovative ways,” said Marc Gordon, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “With the launch of Amex for Developers, we are expanding access to our APIs to additional partners, creating new opportunities for business growth, both for our partners and for American Express.”

Created for developers, the portal contains a robust set of tools and resources, plus supports an end-to-end, self-service workflow, so software engineers can rapidly create, innovate and test new concepts. The portal includes a “sandbox” environment that has been architected to give developers the freedom to quickly begin testing and experimenting with American Express capabilities, without access to actual Card Member or merchant data. In addition to processing payments on its network, American Express manages both the acquiring relationship with merchants and the card-issuing side of the business, creating a “closed loop.” The portal has been designed to give developers access, through its APIs and other products, to capabilities that power billions of transactions around the globe and support innovation at each stage of the digital commerce journey, in a way that is consistent with American Express' longstanding commitment to privacy and safeguarding Card Member information.

“Amex for Developers provides the opportunity for software engineers around the world to innovate with American Express,” noted Sathish Muthukrishnan, Vice President, Enterprise API Engineering & Digital Partnerships. “This will enable more developers to apply their creativity to our APIs and other products, which already have been leveraged by such partners as Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Best Buy.”