Capital One's 2024 letter from Rich Fairbank

About this letter

Rich Fairbank, Capital One's founder and chief executive, wrote this letter to 'Shareholders and Friends' for the company's 2024 annual report. He calls 2024 an outstanding and momentous year, above all because Capital One announced its intent to acquire Discover, a deal that still required regulatory approvals.

Fairbank starts with the company's history. He describes Capital One as an information-based technology company that does banking, and recounts a series of choices: a credit card business built on data, analytics, scientific testing and statistical modelling; a shift in funding from capital markets to insured deposits; a national digital bank with a thin physical presence; a move to the top of the card market; and a technology transformation now in its thirteenth year. He then sets out the case for Discover, his view of artificial intelligence and the year's results.

What to notice

1. 1

   Fairbank splits AI's effect into a horizontal revolution of off-the-shelf tools across all industries and a vertical one, which he expects to be driven not by big tech but by companies with deep proprietary data in their own industry.

“We were an original fintech before there was such a word.”