[AMEX] Amex account ID change (27 August 2026) – re-authentication guidance – Help Centre

On 27 August 2026, American Express (Amex) will change the value and format of account identifiers in their Accounts & Transactions API.

TrueLayer is handling the transition automatically where possible, but some integrations using re-authentication will require action.

What is changing?

The account_id returned by TrueLayer for Amex card connections is derived from Amex's upstream AccountID field. From 27 August 2026, Amex will change the value of this field for all accounts. This means that for affected connections, the account_id you receive from TrueLayer may change.

What actions are required on your part?

The action required depends on how your integration handles Amex connections.

No action required if:

The user's Amex consent was created before 27 August and does not need re-authentication — TrueLayer will handle the account ID transition automatically.
The user's Amex consent is created on or after 27 August — new account identifiers will be used from the outset.
You use connections/extend and the response is no_action_needed.

Action required if:

You use connections/extend and it returns a user_input_link for an Amex connection.
You use the /reauth endpoint directly for Amex connections.
You encounter an external_dependency_error on the /cards endpoint for an Amex card.

In these cases, do not use the user_input_link or /reauth for the affected Amex consent. Instead, prompt your user to create a brand new Amex connection via a fresh authentication flow. This will generate a stable, unaffected consent with the new account identifiers.

What about lapsed consents?

If a user had an Amex consent before 27 August but it was not active at the time of the switchover, there is no way to map their previous account_id to the new one. If this user re-consents after 27 August, they will receive a new account_id with no link to their previous one. We recommend treating this as a new connection.

Are there any alternative solutions available?

There is no alternative to creating a new connection for the re-authentication scenarios described above. Using /reauth or a user_input_link for pre-existing Amex consents after 27 August may result in a broken connection.

Related to