Regulators Should Carefully Review a Capital One-Discover Merger

A merger between the two major credit card brands would further condense an already highly consolidated financial services market 

WASHINGTON – Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan released the following statement regarding the news that two of the U.S.’s largest credit card companies, Capital One and Discover, seek to merge. 

“One of the largest credit card issuers buying up another leading card issuer and operator of a major credit card network looks suspicious on both antitrust and public interest grounds. Yet Capital One wants to acquire Discover,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, Open Markets Legal Director. “Instead of freely allowing big banks and financial services companies to get larger – leaving fewer options for consumers and increasing financial fragility – antitrust enforcers and banking regulators need to carefully investigate this merger and, if it is as problematic as it seems to be, move to block it.” 

In 2021, Open Markets submitted comments to the Justice Department urging the agency to block more bank mergers, pointing to indications that rising concentration of the American banking sector has led to increases in consumer prices and decreases in worker wages while failing to improve productivity. 

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