Capital One Financial (COF) CEO Richard Fairbank said Tuesday that the U.S. consumers remains “in a pretty stable place, and relative to sort of the entire economy, I think is a source of strength.”
He pointed to stability in both new initial jobless claims and consumer debt serving burdens.
At the same time, though, economic uncertainty is still a key risk, amid tariffs and inflation pressures, he said during an event hosted by Goldman Sachs in New York.
On Capital One’s (COF) recent acquisition of Discover Financial Services, Fairbank said the network integration is going well and meeting expectations. Still, he flagged the so-called “brown out” in Discover credit card lending growth, amid Capital One’s effort to dial back certain programs within the Discover portfolio.
The deliberate slowdown in Discover’s lending growth does not prevent Capital One’s (COF) broader card business from growing, the CEO said. “We have a lot of really good traction on the legacy Capital One side,” he added.
Total synergies are still on track to be $2.5B, Fairbank said, with revenue synergies coming first, followed by cost synergies.
COF shares edged up 0.3% in midafternoon trading.