“Stepping back, we expect overall VCE expenses to grow slightly faster than revenues in 2025 as we continue to invest in our products and drive Card Member engagement and as our portfolio continues to become more premium.”

In context

“ccounts and about a third of the total balances today. As we think about 2025, we expect NII growth to outpace the growth in total loans and receivables supported by growth in revolving balances. And while there is uncertainty in the rate outlook, as a reminder, we are mildly liability sensitive with a relatively small impact from changes to the fed funds rate. I'll turn next to expenses on Slide 15. In Q4, the VCE to revenue ratio was 43%. Rewards expense in particular grew 15% in the fourth quarter largely driven by the slow growth in rewards expense in the prior year. In addition, as we mentioned last quarter, we made some small changes to the program that are good for both customers and the overall economics of the program, but drive a very small increase in the URR in the short-term. Stepping back, we expect overall VCE expenses to grow slightly faster than revenues in 2025 as we continue to invest in our products and drive Card Member engagement and as our portfolio continues to become more premium. We expect rewards growth to remain a bit elevated in Q1 as a result of the URR model changes from the year ago before growing more in line with the historical trend. We ended the year with $6 billion in marketing expenses, up 16% for the full year as we invested at elevated levels based on the attractive growth opportunities we saw. Given the significant increase of the investment pool in 2024, we expect a modest increase in marketing expense for 2025. Finally, operating expenses for the quarter were down 1% versus last year at $4.2 billion. On a full year basis, operating expenses of $14.6 billion were down 2%. Excluding the gain on sale of the Accertify business in Q2, operating expenses were up 1% for the full year. In 2025, we expect operating expenses to grow in low-single-digits ver”