New York - Credit card company American Express reported a massive drop in profits Monday as more customers defaulted on their payments.

Second quarter earnings fell 38 per cent to 653 million dollars, or 56 cents per share, from 1.04 billion dollars, or 86 cents per share, in the year earlier period.

Revenue rose 8 per cent to 7.5 billion dollars from 6.9 billion dollars in the year-earlier period.

Chief executive Kenneth Cenault warned that the firm's profit goal for the year could likely not be reached. (dpa)