“credit is very low, and there is a hard limit to how low these numbers can be. Right? And 2% is pretty much at that limit.”

In context

“e reflecting that. Kartik Ramachandran: Thank you. The next question is coming from Rick Shane of JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Rick Shane: Thanks for taking my questions. It's sort of a follow-on to what Erika just asked. You know, when we look at 2025, marking the strong the low expense on credit on a relative side allowed you to aggressively ramp marketing and rewards. When you we think about the '26 guidance, it feels like it is more in balance in terms of more normalized growth and credit expense. If credit expense continues to be low, as Christophe, you just alluded to, is there incremental opportunity for investment or is that something we would see fall to the bottom line? American Express has historically reinvested those excess returns. Stephen Squeri: Yeah. So to your point, Rick, credit is very low, and there is a hard limit to how low these numbers can be. Right? And 2% is pretty much at that limit. You know, the other component of the model, which we also try to illustrate this quarter, is the efficiencies that we're getting on operating expenses. Right? So as we are expanding their increasing the value proposition on our premium products, as premium products are getting a bigger share of our portfolio, it's putting a downward pressure on credit. And we are generating efficiencies on marketing acquisition as well as on our operating expenses. And that's very much how the model is working. And we try to illustrate that also by saying that this is not by constraining technology growth. We're actually growing technology. I think the CAGR is 11%. It's all the other operating expenses that are generating efficiencies. So, you know, as you think about modeling American Express and thinkin”