Capital One Financial Corp. said its credit card operations need to be "reinvented" in response to the government's new restrictions on card policies.
"Some of that reinvention will feel like back to the future," Gary Perlin, Capital One's chief financial officer, said at a conference Wednesday in New York. The new government policies will force card lenders to "underwrite the customer well to begin with, where the fees and rates are identified up front."
Capital One is "re-underwriting" its card portfolio to "make sure it's resilient for the legal regime that is to come," Perlin said.
Regulators told Capital One, one of the 19 largest U.S. lenders to undergo a government stress test, that it did not need to raise more capital, but the company is adding to its capital to prepare for credit card policy changes. "We have the balance sheet to support a reinvented credit card business," Perlin said. Capital One had an "advantage" because of its capital, he said.
