Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s (Fed) decision to approve the Capital One’s acquisition of Discover.

“The Trump Administration’s approval of the Capital One-Discover merger will create yet another ultra-wealthy megabank in America that our nation’s consumers, small businesses, and working-class families cannot afford. This merger will create a $637 billion bank, making it the sixth-largest bank overall and the nation’s largest issuer of credit cards. Let’s be clear, when the biggest financial institutions get even bigger, they become too big to manage, and many have broken the law by defrauding millions of their customers – all the while they rake in billions of dollars of profit while their CEOs get bigger bonuses.

“The truth is, Capital One and Discover were already doing that before this merger. Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Capital One for cheating millions of their customers out of $2 billion in interest payments. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration dropped this suit and let the bank off the hook. Similarly, regulators took an enforcement action against Discover after the bank ‘recklessly engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices’ by overcharging small businesses excessive interchange fees for 16 straight years.

“It’s abhorrent that our nation’s regulators ignored the many concerns that not only and I and other Members of Congress raised, but more importantly, those of everyday consumers who will be negatively impacted. In fact, a staggering 91% of the 6,132 comments regulators received from the public raised concerns about the merger leading to less competition and causing financial instability. Despite the fact that commenters overwhelmingly urged regulators to oppose the merger, their voices in the process went unheeded and this merger was rubber stamped like so many bank mergers before it. Megabanks, including the new one created with this merger approval, should know that I and my Democratic colleagues will use every tool at our disposal to oversee them, and will not tolerate any abuse of hard-working American consumers.”

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