(NEW YORK) -- American Express will close a service center in Greensboro.  Some workers at the Greensboro facility will be transferred to other operations.

Work currently handled in Greensboro will be transferred to other locations in the U.S. The company also plans to transfer work currently handled at a Madrid service center to regional facilities in Brighton, U.K. and Buenos Aires, Argentina; and service support for the Japanese card business from Sydney to Japan.

The global reorganization will result in a staffing reduction of about 550 positions.  Relocating of some workers means approximately 3,500 existing positions would be impacted.

The consolidation initiative is expected to be mostly complete by end of 2011. About 1,900 people work at the center in Greensboro. About 400 of them will remain in North Carolina, working from home. The move is expected to save American Express about $70 million.