American Express Australia Ltd turned a small profit in 2006 into a larger loss in 2007. AEAL reported a net loss of $10.7 million in the year to December 2007, following a net profit of $4.9 million the year before.Higher property costs, increased marketing costs and a rise in the level of provision for the redemption of member rewards appear to explain the turnaround, and so may be one-off factors. The charge for bad debts fell over the year.Growth in credit card and charge card receivables slowed markedly over the year. Aggregate balances increased by six per cent to $4.82 billion at December 2007.Amex appears to have recorded no growth in credit card receivables, which were steady at $2.8 billion at December 2007 (the same as the year before). Credit card receivables had increased 27 per cent over 2006.This segment of the business may get a kick along when Amex takes over the funding of the David Jones store card in a few months time.Charge card receivables, however, increased 18 per cent to $2.1 billion.The personal lending portfolio of Amex declined marginally, to $148 million in 2007 from 2006. After experimenting with this credit product American Express no longer offers personal loans.One reason may be the credit quality of this small portfolio. Arrears of 30 days or more are 2.4 per cent. Arrears of more than ninety days, though, are benign at 0.18 per cent.In the credit and charge card portfolio, arrears of 30 days or more were 10.7 per cent in December, though arrears of 90 days or more were 0.4 per cent.Unused credit to card holders was $8.38 billion at December 2007, up from $7.58 billion at December 2006.Estimates by MWE Consulting put the combined market share of American Express and Diners Club at 15.6 per cent at December 2007, though this market share fluctuates by several tenths of a percentage point each month.