“As we've noted previously, we expect the VCE ratio to increase over time as a result of our investments in the value proposition and the mix shift to a more premium portfolio.”

In context

“owth stepped up from the first half of the year to revive by strong early engagement with the refreshed US platinum benefits, especially some of the quarterly credits that were available to customers. This is a good early sign of interest in the product, and the new benefits. And as we noted previously, the cost of benefits occurs immediately. While the realization of fee revenue is lagged given the timing and accounting of those fees. Our model also benefits from partners that offer value to our customers. Over the last 12 months, our partners have offered over $3 billion of value across embedded benefits. Amex Travel and Amex offers. We also manage our VCE expenses through constant innovation of our rewards and benefits. The latest one being the introduction of amount-based redemptions. As we've noted previously, we expect the VCE ratio to increase over time as a result of our investments in the value proposition and the mix shift to a more premium portfolio. We also feel good about the ability of these investments, together with expense leverage, to drive sustainable mid-teens EPS growth under our long-term aspiration. Moving on to capital, we returned $2.9 billion of capital to our shareholders, including $0.6 billion of dividends and $2.3 billion of share repurchases. Our business continues to generate very strong returns with an ROE of 36% this quarter. Our strong ROE enables us to return a high level of earnings to our shareholders around 70% over the past three years. Over the same time period, our dividend is up 58%. That brings me to the outlook for the year where there continues to be uncertainty in the environment. Given the strength of our performance, we are raising our full-year guidance. We now expect revenue growth of 9 to 10% a”