Capital One Financial Corp.

	'96 (in $ 000s)	'95 (in $ 000s)
Assets	6,467,445	4,759,321
Net Income	155,267	126,511
Rank Last Year: 9

Description:
Capital One Financial, with 8.6 million customers, is among the nation's largest issuers of Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Its principal subsidiary is Capital One Bank. The company, once part of Signet Banking Corp., was spun off in 1995.

Business Resume: Contact Info -- 2980 Fairview Park Dr. Falls Church, Va. 22042 703/205-1000 Main Business -- Consumer lending Founded -- 1994 Chairperson -- Richard D. Fairbank (CEO) President -- Nigel W. Morris Employees -- 5,740 D.C.-Area Employees -- 168

Developments:
Capital One reported strong growth over the past year, adding 2.5 million cardholders and 2,100 employees. It opened a new operations center in Texas and has begun test-marketing credit cards in Britain as a first step toward international expansion.

Capital One makes extensive use of computer technology, both to service its accounts and to choose customers. Like other card issuers, it has come under pressure from slowing growth and higher defaults in the credit card market. Nonetheless, the company's earnings and return on equity grew by more than 20 percent in 1996.