Capital One

If Capital One successfully buys Discover Financial Services, it would create an entity with an enormous amount of power. That could lead to abuses of vulnerable consumers.

The decision will turn on whether regulators think the merged company would lessen competition or pose a significant threat to the broader economy if it runs into financial distress.

Capital One, like Discover, is showing signs of greater stress in its loan portfolio. Credit-card write-offs totaled $2.2 billion in the first quarter, a 61% increase from a year earlier.

New details have emerged about the negotiations that culminated in Capital One's blockbuster $35 billion agreement to acquire Discover. At one point last December, the two parties broke off discussions, according to a securities filing.

Banking regulators and the Department of Justice must decide whether the blockbuster deal raises antitrust concerns. Looming over their analyses are questions about how broadly or narrowly to define the relevant markets.

Ally Financial ended a six-month search for its next chief executive by hiring Discover CEO Michael Rhodes. The move adds a new wrinkle to Discover's pending sale, though Discover said that Rhodes hadn't been expected to have a long-term role at Capital One following the merger's completion.

The credit card giant says that it is "proactively meeting" with advocacy organizations to gather feedback that would help with the creation of a community benefits plan. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which has negotiated 21 such deals since 2016, opposes Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover.

The blockbuster merger is now in the hands of banking agencies and the Department of Justice, which will have to evaluate its impact on competition.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the deal would further anti-consumer bank consolidation, but also criticized the OCC's proposed changes to the merger process, asking that they be strengthened.

The two companies in the largest bank merger since the 2008 financial crisis released details of their agreement. It leaves the door open for Discover to field better offers, though the payments company would pay a break-up fee of 4% if it accepts one.