Business travel will be “completely different,” said Steve Squeri, CEO of American Express, in a fourth quarter earnings call. In answer to a question about business “drivers,” he said that while “people are skeptical” about business travel because of all the remote workforce, he thinks that as there are more people in more remote locations, they may need to get together “three, four, maybe five times a year to come to headquarters or to come to locations where they never had to come to before.” “And let’s face it,” said Squeri, “we all realize that there's nothing better than sitting in front of your customers.” Spending volume on American Express commercial cards continued to increase in the fourth quarter, totaling $141 billion, compared with $126 billion in the third quarter and up 30% year over year. Travel and entertainment (T&E) spending's share of that total also continued to increase, making up 16% of total commercial volume in the fourth quarter, up from 14% in the third quarter. Commercial T&E volume was down 39% compared with 2019 volume, an improvement from the 50% decline seen in the third quarter. Large and global corporate T&E volumes reached 36% of 2019 levels in the fourth quarter, though they were up 144% year over year. Jeff Campbell, CFO, said those volumes will be “the last to recover.” T&E spending by small and medium-sized companies (SME’s) recovered to 83% of 2019 levels in the quarter. Squeri said 2021 was "one of the best years we've ever seen for US SME new account acquisition."