Capital One is an American bank holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. It specializes in credit card, auto loans, banking, and mortgage services, and is the 12th largest bank in the United States by total assets. The company was founded in 1994 and has approximately 50,800 employees. Capital One operates primarily in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and is ranked 106th on the Fortune 500 list. The company's three main divisions are credit cards, consumer banking, and commercial banking. Capital One is the third largest issuer of Visa and Mastercard credit cards. The company's success as a monoline bank in the 1990s was attributed to its use of data collection to build targeted offers of credit directly to consumers. In 1996, Capital One expanded into auto loans and received approval from the federal government to set up Capital One FSB, allowing it to retain and lend out deposits on secured cards and issue automobile installment loans. In 1999, Capital One announced plans to expand beyond credit cards and offer loans, insurance, and phone service using its experience with collecting consumer data.
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