FDIC and Federal Reserve Fine Discover, Alleging Credit Card Misclassification

Core Points - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board fined Discover Financial Services and its subsidiaries for misclassifying consumer credit cards as commercial, leading to higher interchange fees for merchants [1][2][4] - Discover Bank was ordered to pay $1.225 billion in restitution and a $150 million civil penalty due to the misclassification affecting millions of consumer credit cards over 17 years [2][3] - Merchants were overcharged over $1 billion in interchange fees as a result of the misclassification [3] - The Federal Reserve issued a consent order requiring corrective action and imposed a $100 million civil penalty on Discover Financial Services and DFS Services LLC [4][6] - Capital One Financial's application to merge with Discover Financial Services was approved, with a commitment to comply with the Federal Reserve's actions against Discover [5][6] - Capital One expects the process of addressing Discover Financial's regulatory challenges to be lengthy and costly [7] Summary by Category Regulatory Actions - FDIC fined Discover Financial Services and its subsidiaries for misclassifying credit cards, resulting in higher interchange fees for merchants [1][4] - Discover Bank ordered to pay $1.225 billion in restitution and a $150 million civil penalty for misclassification affecting millions of credit cards over 17 years [2][3] - Federal Reserve issued a consent order with a $100 million civil penalty against Discover Financial Services and DFS Services LLC [4][6] Financial Impact - Merchants overcharged over $1 billion in interchange fees due to the misclassification of credit cards [3] - The restitution of $1.225 billion will be paid to affected merchants and intermediaries [2][3] Corporate Developments - Capital One Financial's merger application with Discover Financial Services was approved, with conditions to comply with regulatory actions [5][6] - Capital One anticipates a long and expensive process to resolve Discover Financial's regulatory challenges [7]