In a word, bureaucracy. Amex is the premier expert in creating silos and tearing down ease of work in order to increase the complexity of doing business. Many times the ideas are sound and might even make sense, until you've been around a while and its clear that politics are usually the biggest drivers for centralizing or decentralizing (and back again) a specific organization. The fact that we are in a very challenging time almost allows this type of behavior to go on, the best power players will survive, those with less skill will be posting on LinkedIn...