American Express Co. acknowledged on Friday that government agencies, including the Justice Department, have reviewed the company’s sales practices in relation to small business cards.
The company said in a regulatory filing that in May it began responding to a regulatory review led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the civil division of the DOJ. AmEx said the review was related to “historical sales practices related to certain small business card sales.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that federal investigators, including Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve general inspectors, were investigating AmEx card sales. Investigators were studying whether the company used aggressive and deceptive selling tactics to sell cards to business owners and whether customers were harmed, the newspaper reported.
According to people familiar with the subject, the Department of Justice works with these offices.
The newspaper also reported last month that the OCC was investigating the company’s business card sales practices.