Known as Serve, the American Express micropayments service is aimed at any user of the internet, mobile or desktop, and can be linked to any bank account, debit or credit card.
Users will get their own Serve card, which allows them to draw cash from an ATM, as well as spend account funds at an Amex-accepting retailer.
Most fees on the new service will be waived for at least six months, and one free ATM withdrawal a month will be allowed, Infosecurity notes.
Amex says that its Serve platform evolved from the recent $300m acquisition of America Online's Revolution Money service.
The plan is for the platform to have apps available – from day one – on iPhone, Android and RIM BlackBerry smartphones. The service will launch this spring in the US, with an international rollout planned for later in the year.
Unlike Visa, Amex says it is clearly gunning for PayPal with its Serve facility, which it is also targeting at younger users of the internet, a demographic the company notes as tending to access the net using smartphones.
According to Dan Schulman, group president of Amex's enterprise growth operations, Serve will be a platform, rather than a card or an electronic wallet.
Schulman – who joined Amex last summer from Sprint Nextel, the US telecoms carrier – says that Serve's main aim is to allow consumers and merchants to move seamlessly between online and offline environments.
Interestingly, Amex says it is not interested in extending Serve into the NFC (near field communications) marketplace that many smartphone vendors are investigating.
Amex has also stated publicly it does not expect to generate all of its profits directly from Serve, but also from collating customer data and then offering well-targeted offers to users.