Capital One 2012 Annual Report Download - page 7

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scale advantages. These products and businesses are now highly consolidated
and essentially off-limits to local and regional players without national scale.
Traditional deposit banking has been slower to consolidate nationally, but here
too the trend toward national scale is inexorable.
In 2012, we enhanced our positioning for success as the industry evolves. We
have achieved national scale positions where scale matters most. We have
access to attractive national scale assets in credit cards, auto finance, and
specialty commercial lending. We have a large, national customer base,
including the 7.5 million passionate “early digital adopters” who came with the
ING Direct acquisition. We have the nation’s largest internet bank and growing
traction and investment scale in our digital efforts. And we have one of the
leading brands in financial services.
There is still leverage in being local in traditional deposit banking and commercial
banking. We have strong local positions in these businesses, including branches
in attractive local markets, and a well-established and successful commercial
banking business focused on primary banking relationships.
We have more work to do to build one of America’s great companies and transform banking for the good of the customer.
We must deliver superior and sustained financial performance so that our investors get paid. We must deliver a compelling,
“company-defining” customer experience for everyone who does business with us. And we must continue to excel
at finding and attracting great talent and fostering a culture and environment that enable our people to be great.
We are well positioned to deliver superior and
sustainable financial performance
We’ve carefully chosen banking businesses with attractive and resilient risk-adjusted returns, and we’ve worked
hard for decades to achieve relevant scale and build our capabilities to manage these businesses well. We’ve
demonstrated our ability to deliver solid performance in good times and bad, as we did throughout the Great Recession.
We expect that we’ll be able to generate and sustain returns at the higher end of banks.
We’re laser-focused on execution and expense management, which we see as important levers of shareholder
value. We’re executing well on our integrations and across all of our businesses. And we’re redoubling our efforts to
improve process efficiency and tightly manage our operating expenses.
We’re also focused on delivering shareholder value through capital generation and allocation. We’re in a strong
capital position, and we expect that we’ll continue to generate substantial excess capital, which we will deploy in
the interests of our shareholders.
Our flagship card products, Venture,
Cash, and Spark, continue to be
recognized by the media and
consumer advocates as leading
products in their segments.