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ProfileCompany or group

American Express

Lender or loan platform

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

Made 6,954 PPP loans of its own in 2020, then bought the fintech lender Kabbage for about $750 million while leaving Kabbage's PPP loans behind. The company that kept the loans went bankrupt, and in 2025 its estate sued American Express to recover the money.

  • Type: Card issuer and bank holding company; PPP lender
  • Entities: American Express Company; American Express National Bank; American Express Kabbage Inc.

American Express National Bank made 6,954 Paycheck Protection Program loans for $681.8 million, all approved between April 13 and June 30, 2020, in the SBA's loan file.1 Priced loan by loan under the SBA's fee schedule, they carry about $26.4 million in processing fees.12 Its parent's quarterly reports carried the loans inside "Other loans": "$0.6 billion" of gross PPP loans outstanding at the end of 2020, "$0.5 billion" at March 31, 2021 and "$0.2 billion" at June 30, 2021.34 See its lender page.

The larger pandemic story is the company it bought. Kabbage, an Atlanta online lender, is listed in the SBA's loan file as originating lender on 179,818 PPP loans for $3.3 billion.1

Buying Kabbage without the loans

American Express announced its agreement to acquire Kabbage on August 17, 2020. The announcement carried one line about the loans: "Kabbage's pre-existing loan portfolio is not included in the purchase agreement."5 The deal closed on October 16, 2020; Kabbage said its customers had accessed "over $16 billion dollars through our services."6 Kabbage's bankruptcy papers say the debtors "sold substantially all of their assets to affiliates of American Express in exchange for approximately $750,000,000," most of which went to Kabbage's shareholders.7 The company left behind kept the PPP loans, took the name K Servicing, and filed for Chapter 11 in October 2022.7

In the bankruptcy, K Servicing's forgiveness work ran on American Express systems under a transition services agreement. When Cross River Bank and Customers Bank asked the bankruptcy court for a Rule 2004 examination, American Express objected; a declaration filed with its objection said that "American Express has fulfilled all of its obligations under the TSA, and much more."89

The estate's lawsuit

On October 16, 2025, five years to the day after the closing, the wind-down estate sued American Express Kabbage Inc. and American Express Travel Related Services Company in Delaware bankruptcy court. The complaint alleges that "immediately prior to the merger, Kabbage transferred its most valuable assets—including $120 million in cash earned from the PPP—to its sole shareholder, AmEx Kabbage," and it seeks to avoid and recover that transfer as an actual fraudulent transfer, among other counts.10 The claims are allegations. The Kabbage profile sets out the sale, the solvency opinion and the estate's case in detail.

Sources

Notes

  1. SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, release of Sept. 30, 2024, loans with American Express National Bank (and, separately, Kabbage, Inc.) as originating lender, priced under 85 FR 20811. Original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture) ↩
  2. SBA interim final rule, Paycheck Protection Program, 85 FR 20811 (Apr. 15, 2020). ↩
  3. American Express Company Form 10-Q (Mar. 31, 2021). Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4962/000000496221000028/axp-20210331.htm ↩
  4. American Express Company Form 10-Q (June 30, 2021). Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4962/000000496221000042/axp-20210630.htm ↩
  5. American Express, announcement of its agreement to acquire Kabbage (Aug. 17, 2020). Original: https://ir.americanexpress.com/news/investor-relations-news/investor-relations-news-details/2020/American-Express-to-Acquire-Kabbage/default.aspx ↩
  6. Kabbage, "Start Spreading the News: Kabbage Joins American Express" (Oct. 16, 2020). Original: https://newsroom.kabbage.com/news/kabbage-to-join-american-express/ ↩
  7. Statement of financial affairs for Kabbage, Inc., In re KServicing Wind Down Corp., No. 22-10951 (Bankr. D. Del. Oct. 24, 2022), Doc. 145. Original: https://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.deb.188293/gov.uscourts.deb.188293.145.0.pdf ↩
  8. Declaration of Regina Sorin in support of American Express's objection to the Rule 2004 motion, No. 22-10951 (Mar. 15, 2023), para. 4. Original: https://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.deb.188293/gov.uscourts.deb.188293.684.0.pdf ↩
  9. Objection of American Express to Joint Motion of Cross River Bank and Customers Bank for a Rule 2004 examination (Mar. 15, 2023). Original: https://archive.org/download/gov.uscourts.deb.188293/gov.uscourts.deb.188293.709.0.pdf ↩
  10. Complaint, KServicing Wind Down Corp. v. American Express Kabbage Inc. and American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (Bankr. D. Del. Oct. 16, 2025). Original: Original Complaint — KServicing Wind Down Corp. v. Frohwein et al. (Dkt. 1178) (original: courtlistener.com) ↩
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