By George Glover
Shares in Capital One and Discover Financial Services were rising Monday, as investors reacted to U.S. banking regulators approving a $35 billion merger between two of the biggest U.S. credit-card issuers.
Capital One stock climbed 4% and Discover shares were up 6.2% in premarket trading. Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 slipped 1.1% as investors fretted about trade tensions and President Donald Trump's attacks on the Federal Reserve.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board, which oversee U.S. lenders, said Friday that they had approved the deal, which will create the sixth-largest U.S. bank. It's the final regulatory hurdle the two companies needed to clear to close a merger that was first announced in February 2024.
The approval of the transaction could be a sign that it will be easier for financial services companies to get deals done under the Trump administration. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed last month to scrap a Biden-era policy aiming to give greater scrutiny to big bank mergers.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
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April 21, 2025 07:16 ET (11:16 GMT)
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