Capital One - History

History

Capital One was founded in 1988 by Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris as a spin-off of Richmond, Virginia-based Signet Banking Corp (which was subsequently acquired in 1997 by First Union Corporation, which merged with Wachovia in 2001 and is now part of Wells Fargo).

Capital One entered the retail banking market with its acquisition of New Orleans, Louisiana-based Hibernia National Bank in 2005 and Melville, New York-based North Fork Bancorporation in 2006. North Fork Bank and Superior Savings of New England, both subsidiaries of North Fork Bancorporation, began using the branding of Capital One Bank on March 10, 2008. On October 18, 2008, Capital One announced it would purchase Chevy Chase Bank for US$520 million.

Capital One responded to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis by jettisoning its mortgage platform, GreenPoint Mortgage, due in part to investor pressures.

On November 14, 2008, Capital One Financial Corporation was the recipient of US$3.56 billion of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Federal bail-out. On June 17, 2009, Capital One completed the repurchase of the 3,555,199 shares of the preferred stock the company issued to the U.S. Treasury.

In February 2012, Capital One completed its acquisition of ING Bank, fsb, which operates as ING DIRECT in the United States.

In July 2012, Capital One was fined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for misleading millions of its customers, such as paying extra for payment protection or credit monitoring when they took out a card. The company agreed to pay $210m (£134m) to settle the legal action against them and to refund two million customers.