I worked there a long time ago. Indian VPs were taking kickbacks from consulting firms to hire their devs, it was an open secret. Whole divisions of the company are 95% Indian.

I wont expose the group here, but there's a broad network of technology directors from Amex, that have all been hiring and promoting eachother for 20 years. Very tight nit networks of nepotism, in some cases, brother and sister working together

All that really matters is the Amex brand, and so all the tech was considered back office, and unimportant.

Also, once a company enters some kind of monopoly status, very little matters in the quality of their product.