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American Express Co. is taking advantage of new government liquidity programs by raising billions of dollars in fresh capital, according to a regulatory filing submitted Tuesday.

American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) said it issued $5.5 billion in new debt as part of a guarantee program run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The financial services firm, which is primarily focused on credit card lending, also had raised about $4.6 billion in capital as of Dec. 5, through the launch of a retail certificate of deposit program through its banking subsidiaries.

The financial firm could also borrow money from the Federal Reserve using credit card receivables as collateral, according to the filing. In October, American Express received approval to borrow from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Last month, American Express received approval to convert to a bank holding company amid the ongoing credit crisis. The move allows American Express to tap into more government lending programs aimed at spurring more lending between financial firms and to consumers. The status change also allows American Express to create a large deposit base to help fund its operations.

Deposits can provide financial firms a large, stable base for funding operations when many other avenues for raising capital, such as the securitization market, are nearly at a standstill affordable car insurance. Multiple financial firms have become bank holding companies, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), to allow them to build strong deposit bases and allow for wider access to government programs that were traditionally reserved for commercial banks.

Under the FDIC guarantee program, American Express said it would be able to offer up to $13.3 billion of unsecured debt that would have the backing of the FDIC. The $5.5 billion already issued matures in 2010 and 2011.

Through the program, a financial institution can issue debt to raise capital, and the debt will have the backing of the federal government - considered the most creditworthy borrower around. The benefit to investors is that the bonds earn a higher yield than government debt.

Other financial institutions including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Inc (C, Fortune 500). have signed up for the FDIC guarantee program as well.

American Express said that it will use some of the new capital from the debt offering and certificates of deposit to pay off $3.6 billion of long-term debt obligations maturing during the quarter ending Dec. 31.

Shares of American Express fell 25 cents to $24.19 in morning trading. 

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