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The rebound of credit card lending is having nasty side effects for Capital One Financial Corp. and American Express Co., which are increasingly spending more to compete for the most credit-worthy customers.
January 20 -
First Niagara recently announced the acquisition of almost 200 HSBC branches in its market area. When asked if this would result in branch closures and layoffs, the chief executive of First Niagara said there wouldn't be many layoffs, because the overlapping branches would be sold rather than closed.
August 15 -
Banks are looking to slash infrastructure that had been built for growth, but not all have bloat in their payrolls. In fact, compensation is now a smaller portion of revenue at companies like Capital One than it was before the recession.
November 1
Capital One Financial (COF) in McLean, Va., has slashed nearly 500 assistant branch manager positions nationwide in a cost-cutting move aimed it improving its overall efficiency.
A spokesman for the $205 million-asset company told the Houston Business Journal Tuesday that Capital One needs to be leaner in order to grow its branch network "in a challenging economic environment."
Capital One's efficiency ratio ballooned to 64.46% in the fourth quarter from 55.3% just three months earlier. The company, one of the industry's most aggressive advertisers, attributed the jump primarily to increased marketing costs.
Capital One did not disclose where the jobs were eliminated, but the Houston paper said that 102 were in Texas, where the bank has about 185 branches. In all, Capital One operates close to 1,000 branches in eight states and the District of Columbia.
Affected employees were given the option apply for open positions within the company. Those that did not find a new role received severance packages, the Houston Business Journal said.
