“So overall, we are pleased with the growth momentum we see across the board in our spending volumes, which is tracking in line with our expectations for both the year and for our long-term expectations.”

In context

“consumer growth with their spending up 56% year-over-year and spending growth from all other age cohorts increasing as well in the quarter. Also of note, global consumer T&E volumes overall were back above 2019 levels as of the first quarter, led by the growth in the US. Second, our commercial businesses strategic focus on helping SME clients run their businesses continues to drive strong growth in overall SME spending, up 30% in the first quarter with acceleration in growth across both the US and international. While a smaller part of our overall growth is in this segment, I would point out that our large and global corporate clients have begun to show signs of business travel recovery, especially in the latter part of the quarter with a year-over-year growth rate for the quarter of 42%. So overall, we are pleased with the growth momentum we see across the board in our spending volumes, which is tracking in line with our expectations for both the year and for our long-term expectations. As you then move to receivable and loan balances on slide 9, you see that our growth momentum has brought our ending loan balances roughly back to pre-pandemic levels in this quarter. As I said at Investor Day, the interest-bearing portion of our loan balances also continues to increase quarter-over-quarter, but is still below 2019 levels as pay down rates remain elevated due to the liquidity and strength amongst our customer base. This liquidity and strength is also, of course, evident as you turn to credit and provision on slides 10 through 12, as we continue to see extremely strong credit performance. Card Member loans and receivables write-off and delinquency rates remain well below pre-pandemic levels and in line with our expectations, but they did tick up a bit this quarter. As you”