AmEx capital payout plan approved

American Express Co received federal regulatory approval to return capital to its investors through share buybacks, the credit card company said on Friday. The Federal Reserve said on Friday that it would allow some of the largest US banks to boost or restart dividend payments as it notified them whether they had passed a second round of stress tests.
The Fed said on Friday that it "had no objections" to the company's capital redistribution plan, American Express said in a regulatory filing. It did not say how many shares it would buy back in 2011, but said it would not start repurchasing them until a quarterly earnings-related blackout period ends.