Business / brief
US Banks Split on Travel Ambitions as Card Spending Reaches $1.1 Trillion
A divide has opened in American finance over premium travel cards: a few issuers want to own the trip itself, while most banks prefer to own the customer paying for it.
In 2025, Citi cards processed $538 billion in purchases, Bank of America cards handled $378 billion and Wells Fargo cards accounted for $186 billion, according to the report. Together the three lenders generated $1.1 trillion in card spending in a single year.
None of the three, however, has built a standalone travel company. Chase has: its Chase Travel unit booked $13 billion last year, a volume JPMorgan describes as making it the third-largest consumer leisure travel seller in the United States.
Capital One is shifting its travel technology operations in-house, while American Express has operated a travel agency since 1915. Those moves place the issuers in a different category from the bulk of US banking.
The divergence is a deliberate strategic choice rather than a lack of interest in travel. A small group of card companies is pursuing ownership of the trip, while most banks have concluded that a different part of the traveler is worth more to them.
The result is a premium travel-card market split between issuers selling travel directly and those content to profit from the spending that funds it.