View or download a PDF of the filing here.

AFREF submitted a second brief with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve calling on the banking regulators to reject the proposed Capital One-Discover merger. The proposed Capital One-Discover merger would have significant anti-competitive impacts that would harm consumers and communities (as AFREF documented in a brief that was filed in April). The merger also fails to meet the requirements and conditions of the Bank Merger Act and Bank Holding Company Act.

The proposed merger fails to meet the convenience and needs of communities by raising consumer credit card costs, having a record of misleading marketing and aggressive debt collection, and closing two-thirds of its branches over the past 15 years. It has a highly checkered record of regulatory compliance and consumer protections, including a massive data breach and flawed anti-money laundering guardrails. And the merger would pose a significant threat to financial stability by concentrating high-risk credit card loan assets that would be vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks that could sideline critical credit card and debit transaction functions.