They consulted with Oracle Corporation on how to compile the demographics and other statistics that would help them sort out and identify those customer market segments.

Funding Universe wrote: “Fairbank and Morris’s plan would allow companies to fine-tune card product and pricing strategies for individual customers through a decision-making structure blending together marketing, credit, risk, operations and technology functions.

[16] Capital One attributed its relative success as a monoline to its use of data collection to build demographic profiles, allowing it to target personalized offers of credit directly to consumers.

[17] In 1996, Capital One moved from relying on teaser rates to generate new clients to adopting more innovative techniques that would attract more customers to their business model.

An article appearing in Chief Executive in 1997 noted that the company held $12.6 billion in credit card receivables and served more than nine million customers.

CEO Richard Fairbank announced moves to use Capital One's experience with collecting consumer data to offer loans, insurance, and phone service.

[34] It briefly considered acquiring Netspend, a marketer of prepaid debit cards, for $700 million in 2007, but the deal was not ultimately completed.

[45] The acquisition also included private issued credit cards for such companies as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Lord & Taylor that were previously handled by HSBC.

[50] Capital One also attributed its assertion of a right to "spoof" as necessary because "sometimes the number is 'displayed differently' by 'some local phone exchanges,' something that is 'beyond our control'".

[53] In October 2014, Capital One acquired Adaptive Path, a San Francisco-based user experience and digital design consultancy.

[56] In July 2015, the company acquired Monsoon, a design studio, development shop, marketing house and strategic consultancy.

[68] In 2008, Capital One received an investment of $3.56 billion from the United States Treasury as a result of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

[69][70] On June 17, 2009, Capital One completed the repurchase of the stock the company issued to the U.S. Treasury paying a total of $3.67 billion, resulting in a profit of over $100 million to the U.S.

[74] The move came amidst rising scrutiny of the deal on systemic risk, or "Too-Big-to-Fail," performance under the Community Reinvestment Act, and pending legal challenges.

The groups argued that the acquisition was a test of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, under which systemically risky firms must demonstrate a public benefit that outweighs new risk before they are allowed to grow.

[79] In November 2017, President of Financial Services Sanjiv Yajnik announced that the mortgage market was too competitive in the low rate environment to make money in the business.

The advert showed Herman Li and Sam Totman playing guitar on an asteroid while using Capital One's mobile app.

[96] The Attorney General of New York launched an investigation into whether the company's takeover of Discover would violate state anti-trust laws.

[97] In July 2024, a proposed consumer class action lawsuit was also filed in Virginia, claiming that it would be in violation of federal antitrust laws, forming the largest U.S. credit card issuer by balance and sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets.

Capital One is one of the top three sponsors of the NCAA, paying an estimated $35 million annually in exchange for advertising and access to consumer data.

[104][105] In March 2022, Major League Baseball announced that Capital One is the official bank and credit card and presenting sponsor of the World Series.

[112] In August 2014, Capital One and three collection agencies entered into an agreement to pay $75.5 million to end a consolidated class action lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that the companies used an automated dialer to call customers' cellphones without consent, which is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

[116] The FBI arrested Paige Thompson, who had previously worked as a software engineer for Amazon Web Services, Capital One's cloud hosting company.

Capital One began offering free credit monitoring services[117] and identity protection[118] to those affected by the breach.

[126] On August 6, 2020, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors announced a cease and desist order against Capital One resulting from the breach.

[127] The order mandated, among other things, significant improvements in Capital One's governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) practices.

[128] Lawsuits were filed against Capital One and its employees in federal[129] and circuit courts, led by the firms Colson Hicks Eidson, Franklin D. Azar and Associates P.C., and several others.

[130][131] Additional lawsuits were filed against both Amazon and GitHub, alleging they were aware of the exploit but did not act to fix or patch the vulnerability.

[133] Later that month, a proposed consumer class action was also filed, in a bid to block a merger with Discover Financial, claiming that the acquisition would be in violation of federal antitrust laws.

[135] Charging documents[136] specified Capital One failed to file suspicious activity reports, had deficiencies in its risk assessment, remote deposit capture and generally had weaknesses that compromised national bank security controls.