Capital One Financial Corporation completed its acquisition of Discover Financial Services on 18 May 2025. The transaction, first announced on 19 February 2024, received regulatory approval from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on 18 April 2025.
Capital One chief executive Richard Fairbank publicly thanked Discover's board, its Executive Management Committee and interim chief executive Michael Shepherd for their leadership and partnership. The acquisition brings together two major US consumer credit card franchises and adds Discover's proprietary card network to Capital One's suite of capabilities.
REGULATORY APPROVAL
The Federal Reserve's approval as consolidated supervisor of Capital One and the OCC's concurrence as the prudential regulator for the merged bank were required before the transaction could legally close.
As the owner of the Discover network, the combined company gains the ability to route card transactions across its own infrastructure rather than paying network fees to Visa or Mastercard.
Discover Financial Services had previously been subject to regulatory scrutiny of its own, including a period of remediation related to card misclassification issues.
Capital One announced the completion of the acquisition in a press release on 18 May 2025, which also confirmed that Michael Shepherd, Thomas G. Maheras and Jennifer L. Wong had joined Capital One's board of directors, which expanded from 12 to 15 members.