Stiff competition, a strong U.S. dollar and sluggish revenue growth in recent years prompted AmEx to announce in January that it would ax over 4,000 jobs this year. Salaries and employee benefits, AmEx’s second-biggest expense, fell 25 percent to $1.25 billion in the three months ended June 30, pulling total costs down by 4 percent to $5.6 billion. This helped AmEx report earnings of $1.42 per share instead of $1.32 per share as analysts had estimated, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.