Bank of Valletta's launch on Tuesday of a set of co-branded American Express charge cards marked the culmination of the relationship between the two groups conceived six years ago - and a vote of confidence in a Maltese brand from a global giant.

The merchant acquirer agreement signed in 2003 served to lay the necessary broad base in the merchant market - an arrangement that Michael Edwards, American Express senior vice-president and general manager (Europe), described last week as having "worked very well for both parties".

The range of American Express cards now available to Maltese customers through BoV includes the "iconic" green card, Gold and Platinum products, and a Small Business offering.

The classic American Express card gives members no pre-set spending limit provided the bill is settled in full and on time monthly, round-the-clock global assistance, travel accident benefit, travel inconvenience cover, and membership of a preferred customer programme covering more than 15,000 hotels and of a loyalty reward scheme.

Gold and Platinum card members enjoy higher levels of service, benefits and insurance cover - the Platinum product is particularly attractive to frequent and more demanding travellers who require concierge-style support around the world.

Rather than a question of timing, Dr Edwards said American Express products' long-awaited availability to local customers through a Maltese bank was essentially about selectivity.

"American Express is very selective about who it works with," he told The Sunday Times. "We want to work with a banking institution that has the same approach to its brand and reputation as we do. The BoV brand is a high profile brand.

"We have a range of agreements with banks which differ by market. Some banks effectively run our card business in a particular market, we have joint ventures in other markets, and a series of distribution arrangements in others.

"In this 'marriage', American Express brings a series of card products that have been developed over a number of years and a very high quality of servicing; BoV brings its knowledge of the Maltese market and a very significant - and loyal - customer base."

Dr Edwards pointed out that American Express has striven over the past few years to expand its merchant coverage around Europe. With Malta being a major destination market, the company wanted to ensure coverage for hotels and restaurants was as complete as possible and that local customers had the maximum use of the retail network. It is confident that it has reached near parity with other merchant acquirers in the market.

One of the unique benefits of the American Express product, he pointed out, is access to a truly global travel network. With over 2,200 travel offices, emergency card replacement or personalised support is a straightforward affair in any destination.

The brand's strength is American Express' competitive advantage, Dr Edwards stressed: "At the end of the day, a card product has to stand on its own merits. If you compare any American Express card with a competitive offering in terms of quality of benefits and servicing, you will find it is difficult to beat. One of our great advantages of the range of products we have launched at any one time is the wide choice available to customers."

Coupled with brand strength, American Express, which has stayed true to its origins as a travel organisation founded 150 years ago, has also shown organisational mettle in the current crisis.

Dr Edwards described the impact of the financial storm on American Express, the US' fourth-largest card issuer, as "tremendous", but which had also served as a moment of truth.

"If you have done a really good job at acquiring good customers and ensuring their loyalty, then you will reap the reward," he explained. "If you have acquired a number of customers who were probably not suitable for your franchise, or have extended loans to them that were not appropriate and they could not pay you back, then you reap the rewards of that too."

American Express, he emphasised, has always positioned its cards as premium products, and the benefit of that philosophy has started to show: the company has not posted a loss in any quarter since the crisis began and has managed to cut its costs rapidly. The company shed 11,000 jobs since October, slashed management salary increases, implemented a hire freeze, slowed investment spending, and cut expenses for travel, consulting and entertainment. The measures aimed to generate over $1.8 billion in savings this year.

Focus and prudence has paid off for the company which once owned Lehman Brothers, retail brokerage and asset management divisions, but which shed its non-core operations in the early 1990s to concentrate on its root - but nonetheless diversified - business.

American Express has already repaid the $3.4 billion it received from the US Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Programme in January - one of the first tranche of organisations to do so, and one of the select few organisations to emerge from the federal stress tests of financial institutions in good health.

That is after it posted better-than-expected first quarter results. Income from continuing operations stood at $443 million, down 58 per cent from $1 billion the previous year, beating analysts' expectations and boosting its share price.

Dr Edwards pointed out that the circumstances dictated that safeguarding customers, employees, and shareholders was paramount. Three priorities have been laid out for American Express by the chairman: staying liquid, remaining profitable, and investing selectively in opportunities.

"We pay our merchants very quickly following a transaction and the customers pay us 30 days later," Dr Edwards explained. "There is a funding gap that we have to finance. That is why we took the TARP funding - it was an insurance policy. We are very secure in terms of our liquidity now. Besides, you have remain profitable if you are a global brand. It is really important.

"There will come a time when all this will be behind us, but investment in the business has to take place now and that is difficult to do. There are plans we are working on for future growth of certain parts of the business. When the time is right, and when the funding is available, we will selectively launch into whatever marketplace is appropriate."

Dr Edwards said that despite the US still struggling to emerge from the crisis with unemployment and write-down rates hovering around 10 per cent, there were other markets that were showing promise.

He described Asia as "a major growth market" for American Express where its business was doing "extraordinarily well", similarly to many parts of the European business. Several markets remained where the company was seeking to gain greater penetration and where fundamental banking relationships could be built.

Dr Edwards admitted that although American Express enjoyed a "very good" first quarter, it did not mean that all the problems were solved and he anticipated a tough year ahead.

"It is quite possible that as we enter 2010, times will be tough then as well," he warned. "You have to set your sights accordingly. We will maintain a very tight control of our cost base - certainly in terms of our discretionary spending - and we will aim to invest in areas of growth as and when we identify them."