⚡What does Capital One do, in 30 seconds?
Capital One is a bank that issues credit cards, makes car loans, takes deposits and lends to businesses 1 1 1. It says it was the largest US credit card issuer by card loans at the end of 2025 5. It bought Discover on 18 May 2025 17, so FY2025 includes Discover only from then 9. In FY2025 its revenue, after paying interest to savers and lenders, was $53.4bn ✓, and it kept $2.5bn ✓ as profit.
📱What does Capital One sell?
A bank's revenue comes from two engines: interest and fees. Capital One reports three businesses: Credit Card, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking 1 1 1. Here is what each engine is and which businesses feed it.
Net interest income
This is the interest Capital One earns on its loans, after the cost of its deposits and borrowings 1. It brought in $42.9bn ✓ in FY2025. The Credit Card business lends on US consumer and small-business cards, makes personal loans and runs cards in the UK and Canada 1. In the July to September 2026 quarter, the Credit Card business's loans averaged $273.7 billion, at an average yield of 17.70% 3. Consumer Banking makes car loans and takes deposits, and Commercial Banking lends to companies and commercial property clients 1 1.
👥 Card and car-loan customers and savers 1 34, and companies, typically with yearly revenue of $20 million to $2 billion 1.
Card fees, interchange and other income
This is money earned without lending, which came to $10.6bn ✓ in FY2025. It is mainly the fees stores pay when customers use a card, after the cost of rewards, plus service charges and other customer fees 1. Since the Discover deal, Capital One also owns card networks that earn fees from stores' banks, merchants and card issuers 5 5. In the July to September 2026 quarter, its network carried $190.9 billion of payments, up 25% on a year earlier 3.
👥 Stores that accept its cards, other banks whose cards run on its networks, and its own card customers 5 5 1.
How the mix has shifted
💸How does Capital One make money?
Follow the money from left to rightfrom top to bottom: what comes in (after paying interest to savers and lenders), what it costs to run, what is lost on bad loans, and what is left as profit.
Capital One kept just $5 ✓ of every $100 of revenue as profit in FY2025. For a bank, revenue means what is left after paying interest to savers and lenders. Its revenue was $53.4bn ✓. Net interest income made up $42.9bn ✓ and card fees and other income $10.6bn ✓.
Running costs took $30.5bn ✓. Next, the bank set aside $20.7bn ✓ for loans that may not be repaid. That left pretax profit of $2.3bn ✓. Other items added $0.4bn ✓ and tax took $0.2bn ✓, so profit was $2.5bn ✓. Out of every $100 of revenue, about $57 ✓ went on running costs and $39 ✓ on loan losses. Other items added about $1 ✓.
The year is not like for like with earlier ones. FY2025 includes Discover only from its 18 May 2025 closing 9. On the company's measure, Discover's part of 2025 ended in a $4.5 billion loss from continuing operations 9. That loss reflects an $8.8 billion allowance for credit losses on the Discover loans, booked in the second quarter of 2025 9. In FY2024, before the Discover deal 17, loan losses took $30 ✓ of every $100 of revenue, and Capital One kept $12 ✓.
Out of every $100 of revenue in FY2025…
Interest, investment gains and other income added +$1 for every $100 of revenue, so the slices above add up to a little more than $100.
⏱️ Capital One by the clock
Spread the FY2025 totals evenly over its 365 days and you get this. Source: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORP 10-K [2].
📈How is Capital One doing?
Capital One has grown, lately with the help of buying Discover, but the deal year left FY2025 profit low. From FY2015 to FY2025, revenue grew 8.6% ✓ a year on average. It rose in 9 ✓ of those 10 ✓ years. FY2025 revenue jumped 36.6% ✓, but that year includes Discover from 18 May 2025 9. Profit fell from $4.1bn ✓ in FY2015 to $2.5bn ✓ in FY2025. The share of revenue left as pretax profit fell from 25.1% ✓ to 4.3% ✓. FY2025 profit includes Discover's $4.5 billion loss for its part of the year, on the company's measure 9.
The four quarters to 30 June 2026 look much stronger. Revenue reached $62.0bn ✓, up 45.3% ✓ on the four quarters before. That is not like for like, since Discover joined only on 18 May 2025 17. Profit was $10.5bn ✓, and pretax profit was 21.0% ✓ of revenue. In the July to September 2026 quarter, profit was $3.5 billion, up from $3.2 billion a year earlier 4. In its Domestic Card business, the share of loans written off fell to 3.98% that quarter, from 4.63% a year earlier 3.
📝 The report card
Capital One earns an A ✓ for growth, helped by the Discover deal, and an A ✓ for its equity cushion, a C ✓ for steadiness and an F ✓ for profit. Cash generation is not graded ✓ for banks. Every company is graded on the same fixed scale, so an A means the same thing on every page. The strip shows where Capital One (orange) and its 3 peers land; further right is better.
Growth
Capital One's revenue grew 16.0% ✓ a year over its last three fiscal years, which earns an A ✓. That ranked number 1 of the four companies ✓. Much of that came from buying Discover, which added $9.0 billion of net interest income and $1.8 billion of other income in 2025, on the company's measure 9. JPMorgan grew 12.3% ✓ a year, a B ✓.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Growing revenue is the engine of a business. For a bank, revenue is what it earns after paying interest to savers and lenders; for an insurer, it is mostly premiums. Mature giants rarely grow fast, so 5% a year already earns a C.
Profitability
Over the last three years combined, Capital One earned 5.2% ✓ profit on its owners' money, which earns an F ✓. That ranked number 4 of the four companies ✓, below the 15.9% ✓ peer median. American Express earned 32.0% ✓, an A ✓.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Banks and insurers work with other people's money, so profit margins on revenue say little. Return on equity shows how much profit they make on the owners' money; above 15% is excellent for a big bank or insurer.
Cash generation
Not graded for banks and insurers: their cash flow mostly moves customers' money (deposits, loans, premiums), so it says little about the business.
A bank's cash flow mostly shows customers' money moving in and out, so it is not graded ✓. Capital One's operating cash flow was $18.2bn ✓ in FY2024 and $27.7bn ✓ in FY2025, which says little about how the business did.
Balance sheet
Shareholders' equity was 17.0% ✓ of everything Capital One owned at the end of FY2025, which earns an A ✓. That ranked number 1 of the four companies ✓, well above the 8.2% ✓ peer median. Regulators use a different test called CET1. Capital One's was a preliminary 13.8% at 30 September 2026 4, against a minimum of 9.0% including buffers 10.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Owners' equity is the cushion that absorbs losses before customers' money is at risk. The thicker the cushion compared with everything the company owns, the safer it is.
Steadiness
Capital One's yearly growth swings by 10.4% ✓, measured as a standard deviation, which earns a C ✓. The 36.6% ✓ jump in FY2025, a year that includes Discover from May 9, adds to that. Citigroup, at 4.4% ✓, earns an A ✓.
Why this measure? (lower is better)
Steady growers are easier to plan around. Big swings mean revenue depends on interest rates, markets or one-off events.
🧑🏫 How the grades work
- Same scale for everyone. Each measure has fixed cut-offs (shown under each strip). Clear the A line and you get an A, whatever your peers do.
- Three years together. Profitability and cash generation add up the last three fiscal years before dividing, so one unusual year counts for less than it would on its own (a year much bigger than the others still weighs most).
- Banks and insurers are graded differently. They lend or invest customers' money, so profitability uses return on equity, the balance sheet uses the owners' share of total assets, and cash generation is not graded. They are compared only with other banks and insurers.
- Peers for context. The rank shows how Capital One compares with the group. Companies within 0.1 percentage point share a rank.
- Same source. Every company's figures come from its own latest annual report (10-K), so fiscal years end in different months.
- Judgement, openly stated. The cut-offs are QuantVantage.ai's view of what good looks like for a large, established company. They are not a forecast or a recommendation.
11 years at a glance
Where the cash goes
Capital One hands back cash to shareholders even in a weak profit year. From FY2015 to FY2025 it spent $38.5bn ✓ on dividends and buybacks. In FY2025 it paid out $5.6bn ✓, or 228.9% ✓ of profit: $1.5bn ✓ in dividends and $4.1bn ✓ in buybacks. It bought back another $5.2 billion of shares in the first six months of 2026 10. It paid a dividend of $0.80 a share in each quarter from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the third quarter of 2026, up from $0.60 in the third quarter of 2025 3.
🧮Ratios 101: what are Capital One's key financial ratios?
Ratios shrink Capital One's giant numbers into easy comparisons. For a bank, profit on the owners' money and on total assets matter most. A ratio divides one number by another so companies of any size can be compared. Each card shows the formula with Capital One's real FY2025 numbers, the peer median and the trend.
💰 Profitability: how much of each dollar of revenue is kept?
Net margin
The bottom line: profit after interest and taxes, per dollar of revenue.
👉 Capital One kept 4.6% ✓ of FY2025 revenue as final profit, down from 17.3% ✓ in FY2015 and far below the 16.8% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 15% is strong; one-off tax items can move it in a single year.
Return on equity (ROE)
Profit earned for each dollar that shareholders have left in the company.
👉 ROE of 2.2% ✓ in FY2025 is down from 8.6% ✓ in FY2015 and well below the 15.7% ✓ peer median. Equity was $113.6bn ✓ at the end of FY2025, up from $60.8bn ✓ a year earlier.
📏 Rule of thumb: Around 15% or more is good, but buybacks shrink equity and can make ROE look huge.
⚙️ Efficiency: how hard do the assets work?
Return on assets (ROA)
Profit earned from everything the company owns, however it was paid for.
👉 Banks earn thin profits on huge balance sheets. Capital One made 0.4% ✓ on $669.0bn ✓ of assets, down from 1.2% ✓ in FY2015 and below the 1.3% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: For big banks, about 1% on assets is usual and above 1.2% is strong; insurers are not judged on that scale.
💵 Cash and owners: where does the money end up?
Stock pay
Pay given to staff in shares instead of cash. It is a real cost to owners because it adds shares.
👉 Stock pay is 1.5% ✓ of revenue, close to the 1.4% ✓ peer median and up from 0.7% ✓ in FY2015.
📏 Rule of thumb: Banks and insurers pay part of their staff in shares, so a few percent of revenue is normal.
Shareholder payout
How much of the year's profit was handed back to owners.
👉 Capital One returned 228.9% ✓ of FY2025 profit, far above the 84.5% ✓ peer median and its own 80.4% ✓ in FY2015. Profit was low that year, which pushes this ratio up.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 100% means it returned more than it earned, using cash savings or debt.
Ratios use fiscal-year-end balance sheet values. Inputs are shown rounded, so dividing them can differ from the result in the last digit. A peer median leaves out peers that do not report the inputs, or where the ratio means nothing (for example, negative shareholders' equity). Rules of thumb are general guides from QuantVantage.ai, not hard limits. No share-price ratios (like price-to-earnings) are shown on this page.
🥊Who are Capital One's competitors?
Capital One meets other big card lenders and card networks. It says its card business competes with banks that issue Visa and Mastercard cards and with American Express 5. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup also run large US card businesses 314 3115.
| Company | Where they compete | Revenue | Growth/yr (3y) | Pretax margin | Return on equity (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital One (COF, FY2025) | Credit cards, car loans, deposits, company lending and the Discover and PULSE networks 1 1 5 | $53.4bn | 16.0% | 4.3% | 5.2% |
| American Express (AXP, FY2025) | Both issue credit cards and own card networks; American Express runs its own global network, and Capital One has owned Discover and Diners Club since May 2025 111213 | $72.2bn | 11.0% | 19.1% | 32.0% |
| JPMorgan Chase (JPM, FY2025) | Both big US card lenders: at 30 September 2026, Capital One had $268.4 billion of card loans, including $8.1 billion in the UK and Canada, and JPMorgan Chase $252.7 billion 314 | $182.4bn | 12.3% | 39.8% | 15.9% |
| Citigroup (C, FY2025) | Both run large US card businesses, measured differently 3115. In the July to September 2026 quarter, Capital One's Domestic Card, with small-business and corporate cards, averaged $257.3 billion of loans 3115. Citigroup's US Consumer Cards, with store cards, averaged $181 billion 3115 | $85.2bn | 4.2% | 23.3% | 5.8% |
As a network, Capital One says it cannot be sure it will reach global parity with Visa or Mastercard, which have long-term, sometimes exclusive, deals with banks 18. It also describes American Express as a strong network rival with an upscale brand image 18.
🧭Capital One SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
💪 Strengths
- Capital One says it was the largest US credit card issuer by card loans at the end of 2025 5.
- Its own payment network carried $190.9 billion in the July to September 2026 quarter, up 25% on a year earlier 3.
- Shareholders' equity was 17.0% ✓ of its assets at the end of FY2025, an A ✓, ranked number 1 of four ✓.
- In its Domestic Card business, the share of loans written off fell to 3.98% in the July to September 2026 quarter, from 4.63% a year earlier 3.
🩹 Weaknesses
- It earned 5.2% ✓ on its owners' money over the last three years combined, an F ✓, ranked number 4 of four ✓.
- In FY2025, a year that includes Discover only from 18 May 2025 9, loan losses took $39 ✓ of every $100 of revenue.
- Capital One says consumer loans are a larger share of its loans than at other large banks, and it lends to subprime borrowers, so it may see more bad loans 21.
- It took on two Discover consent orders: a CFPB order on student-loan servicing, in effect until December 2030, and an April 2025 Federal Reserve order over how Discover classified some cards 10.
🚀 Opportunities
- Capital One says it has mostly finished moving its older debit cards onto its own network 5.
- It says other income in the first half of 2026 rose mainly on card loan growth, including Discover, and that debit card move 10. The first half of 2025 had Discover only from 18 May 10.
- It completed its purchase of Brex, which offers company cards and expense software, on 7 April 2026 103.
- Through Discover it gained PULSE, a debit and ATM network used by other banks' debit cards 5 5.
⚠️ Threats
- Capital One warns that Discover integration costs could, in the near term, be larger than the savings it expects 21.
- It says the largest merchants on the Discover and PULSE networks could seek new pricing, and many small and mid-size ones can stop taking those cards at short notice 18.
- Rules on debit card fees face split court rulings, and at the time of its 2025 annual report a proposal to lower the fee cap was not final 21.
- As of its June 2026 quarterly report, it faced a lawsuit by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and related companies, pending in federal court in southern Florida 10.
🏰Does Capital One have a moat?
Why 3?
Capital One spent $5,884 million on marketing in 2025, up from $4,562 million in 2024 16. Its 2025 results include Discover only from 18 May 9. It kept offering Discover-branded cards alongside its own after the deal closed 17. But it says card customers pick an issuer largely on price, credit limit, rewards and service 5. It also calls American Express a strong rival with an upscale brand image 18.
Why 3?
Capital One says it was the largest US card issuer by card loans at the end of 2025, and one of the largest banks by deposits 5. At 30 September 2026 it held $480.7 billion of deposits and $276.4 billion of loans in its Credit Card business 193. But it says card customers pick an issuer largely on price, rewards and other features 5.
Why 3?
Through Discover, Capital One gained the Discover, PULSE and Diners Club networks 5. PULSE is a debit and ATM network used by other banks' debit cards 5. Its network handled $401.8 billion of transactions from 18 May 2025 to year-end 16. But Capital One says it cannot be sure it will reach global parity with Visa or Mastercard 18, and many small and mid-size merchants can stop taking those cards at short notice 18.
Why 3?
Purchases on Capital One cards, including Discover cards from the closing, rose 27% to $828.5 billion in 2025 16. On its own network, part of what merchants pay for its own cards' purchases passes through to its bank 5. Apart from the Discover integration, it says it has moved nearly all its core systems and apps to cloud providers 18. Staff grew to about 76,300 at the end of 2025, from about 52,600, after the Discover deal 516.
A moat is what keeps rivals from taking a company's customers and profits. Scores are QuantVantage.ai's judgement (5 = strongest), set with the same rubric on every explainer (orange is Capital One; grey dots are peers).
🔭What should you watch next?
Debit fee rules in court
In August 2025 a North Dakota court struck down the debit fee rule but put that order on hold pending appeal, while a Kentucky court upheld it 21.
Stress capital buffer
Capital One's buffer stays at 4.5% until 30 September 2027 unless the Federal Reserve acts, putting its minimum CET1 ratio at 9.0% 10.
FDIC special fee dispute
As of its June 2026 quarterly report, its bank was still challenging an FDIC special fee in court, and put the reasonably possible extra cost at about $150 million 10.
📚Learn the words
❓Frequently asked questions about Capital One
How does Capital One make money?
Mostly from interest on its loans. In FY2025 net interest income brought in $42.9bn ✓. Card fees and other income added $10.6bn ✓, mainly fees stores pay on card purchases, after rewards 1.
Does Capital One own Discover?
Yes. Capital One completed its purchase of Discover Financial Services on 18 May 2025 17. It said it would keep offering Discover-branded cards 17, and its bank absorbed Discover Bank 517.
Why was Capital One's profit so low in FY2025?
Loan losses were large. The bank set aside $20.7bn ✓ for bad loans. Out of every $100 of revenue, that was $39 ✓. On the company's measure, Discover's part of the year ended in a $4.5 billion loss from continuing operations 9.
Who runs Capital One?
Richard Fairbank founded it in 1987 and has been chief executive since its November 1994 public listing 22. He has also been chairman since February 1995 22.
Are deposits at Capital One insured?
Its bank is a member of the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund, which insures each depositor's money up to set limits 21.
Does Capital One lend to people with low credit scores?
It lends to both prime and subprime borrowers in cards and car loans 213. At 30 September 2026, 73% of its Domestic Card loans had refreshed FICO scores above 660 213. In car loans, it treats scores of 620 or below as subprime, and 32% had starting scores in that range at 30 September 2026 213.
🎮Play: higher or lower, then test yourself
Figures come from each company's latest annual report (10-K); fiscal years end in different months. Sources: [2] [6] [7] [8].
🧠 Test yourself
5 quick questions. Score: 0 / 5
1. In what year did Richard Fairbank found Capital One?
2. How much cash salary does CEO Richard Fairbank get under his 2026 pay plan?
3. Which card networks did Capital One gain by buying Discover?
4. Out of every $100 of FY2025 revenue, about how much went on loan losses?
5. Roughly how much profit did Capital One make each second in FY2025?
🔎Sources and method
Every figure comes from a source listed here or is calculated from those sources (marked ✓). Company financials are taken from SEC filings (10-K and 10-Q) as tagged in XBRL. Peer grades rank the same measures across the company and its peers. This page contains no share-price data and no valuation.
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1 overview and business segments: incorporation, headquarters, fiscal year, revenue sources, segments, Home Loan sale; Item 2 properties (accessed 2026-10-31)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Capital One (COF) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.2: third quarter 2026 financial supplement (October 20, 2026) — Q3 2026 segment results: loans, deposits, yields, charge-off rates, purchase volume, network volume, credit scores, employees, dividends (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: third quarter 2026 results release (October 20, 2026) — Q3 2026 net income, revenue, margin, provision, adjusting items, capital ratio, total assets and company overview (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1 business: card issuing rank, Discover acquisition, Global Payment Network, competition, workforce (accessed 2026-10-30)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (AXP) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO (JPM) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: CITIGROUP INC (C) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Note 2 business combinations: Discover's contribution to 2025 results and the initial allowance for acquired loans (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 — Brex acquisition, litigation and consent orders, FDIC assessment dispute, stress capital buffer, share repurchases, debit reissuance (accessed 2026-10-31)
- American Express Company Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1 competition: rival networks and issuers, network size ranking (accessed 2026-10-30)
- American Express Company Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 7 segment results: U.S. Consumer Services and Commercial Services Card Member loans at December 31, 2025 (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Discover acquisition and networks, card competitors, domestic credit card loans at December 31, 2025 (Note 4) (accessed 2026-10-31)
- JPMorgan Chase 8-K Exhibit 99.2: third-quarter 2026 earnings release financial supplement — Credit card loans, Card Services net charge-off rate and total assets at or for the quarter to September 30, 2026 (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Citigroup third quarter 2026 results (Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, October 13, 2026) — Q3 2026 revenue, U.S. Consumer Cards revenue and average loans (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 7 MD&A: purchase volume, Global Payment Network volume, marketing expense (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: Capital One Completes Acquisition of Discover (May 18, 2025) — Discover acquisition closing, approvals, Discover-branded cards and networks (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1A risk factors: network competition, merchant acceptance, Regulation II, technology infrastructure (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: third quarter 2026 results release (October 20, 2026) — Q3 2026 loans, deposits and chief executive commentary on the Discover integration (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1 supervision and regulation: Regulation II debit interchange and routing rules (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Capital One Financial Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 — Item 1 deposit insurance; Item 1A risk factors: business mix, subprime lending, integration costs, Regulation II court rulings; glossary (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Financial Corporation 2026 proxy statement (DEF 14A) — Founder and chief executive biography (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: Capital One to Acquire Brex (January 22, 2026) — Brex agreement date, transaction value and what Brex does (accessed 2026-10-31)
- Capital One Form 8-K, Item 5.02: 2026 executive compensation plans (February 6, 2026) — Chief executive's 2026 pay plan: no cash salary, year-end incentive award in early 2027 (accessed 2026-10-31)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Capital One (COF) — quarterly 10-Q/10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Capital One (COF) — balance sheet at 2026-06-30 (accessed 2026-10-28)
- Capital One (COF) Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, filed 2026-02-19 — revenue by product, segment and geography (accessed 2026-10-28)
- JPMorgan Chase Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 — Litigation: hearing date on final approval of the amended interchange class settlement (accessed 2026-10-31)