Capital One Financial Corporation COF

The business

Capital One lends money to people the biggest banks find slightly too risky. Credit cards are the core, roughly two thirds of the loan book, sold nationally through direct marketing rather than branches. Auto lending is the second leg, made through dealers. A national online deposit franchise funds both, which is why the deposit base is $489.1B against relatively few physical locations.

In May 2025 it bought Discover, which brought a card portfolio, a deposit base and, most importantly, a payment network. Capital One is now the only large American card issuer that also owns rails, which puts it in a category with American Express rather than with the banks it used to be compared to.