Profits at finance giant American Express have more than halved, as falling demand for travel has hamstrung its credit-card and foreign exchange services.

Amex, best known for its green credit cards, earned $297m in the last three months of last year, compared with $677m in the same period of 2000.

The result still represents a modest improvement for Amex, which took a $1.2bn charge and laid off 5,000 staff in the middle of last year.

Although Amex is a highly diversified finance group, it is heavily exposed to the ups and downs of the travel business, which has shrivelled since the 11 September attacks.

The firm's shares lost more than one-third of their value last year, compared with an average fall of just 2% for its financial peers.

Green shoots

The results did, however, contain some signs of hope.

The quarterly profits came precisely at the average of analysts' expectations.

Also cheering for the firm was the fact that its revenues slid only 2%, despite the collapse in profits.

And much of the decline was due to a one-off charge related to the reduction in staff numbers.

Excluding charges, American Express earned $476m in the fourth quarter.