WSJ ran an article earlier that gives some context to this. The gist of it is that Amex has been looking for alternative revenue sources since losing CostCo last year, so they're trying to strengthen their consumer lending arm. This also explains why they've been aggressively pushing "pay over time" features so that consumers will start carrying balances on charge cards.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america...lls-1500498486