Dive Brief:

• American Express is working on technologies like facial recognition, apps for wearables, and mobile apps that would reach new, non-traditional customers.

• The push includes an effort to reach younger consumers and others who use mobile a lot, including for payments, and consumers with little or no credit who shy away from credit-card use.

• The facial-recognition tech is still in its infancy, according to David Baldie, who leads the company’s tech delivery at American Express Enterprise Growth, but is far enough along to merit an internal demonstration last month.

Dive Insight:

American Express is breaking out of its staid, “membership has its privileges” mode, going so far as to reach out to customers who haven’t had credit cards, much less the one seen as America’s most expensive and perhaps most exclusive.

The technology push is less surprising — woe to the financial or payments company that isn’t working on that. But facial recognition is a complex if compelling area, and it will be interesting to see if American Express will actually be one of the first labs to bring it to market. Certainly the company aims to be ready for any wearables boom spurred by Apple Watch.