NEW YORK, Jan 22, 2026, 17:14 (EST)
- Capital One agreed to buy fintech Brex in a cash-and-stock deal.
- The lender’s adjusted fourth-quarter profit missed Wall Street estimates.
- Options activity skewed bullish ahead of the earnings release.
Capital One Financial will buy fintech Brex for $5.15 billion, paying about $2.75 billion in cash and issuing about 10.6 million shares, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday. (SEC)
The move matters now because Capital One has been building out payments and commercial reach since it closed its $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services in May 2025. That deal gave Capital One control of Discover’s card network, putting it more directly up against Visa and Mastercard and competing for card balances with banks such as JPMorgan. (Reuters)
Brex sells corporate cards and expense-management software for businesses and pitches its tools as AI-driven. “Acquiring Brex accelerates this journey, especially in the business payments marketplace,” Chief Executive Richard Fairbank said. The companies expect to close the transaction in the middle of 2026 and said Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi will continue to lead the business inside Capital One. (SEC)
Capital One also reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.13 billion, or $3.26 per share, the Associated Press reported. Adjusted earnings, which strip out one-time gains and costs, were $3.86 per share, below the average analyst estimate of $4.12, while adjusted revenue of $15.58 billion beat forecasts. For 2025, Capital One reported profit of $2.45 billion on revenue of $53.43 billion. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Shares fell 4.2% after hours as investors reacted to the earnings miss and the Brex announcement, Investing.com reported. Capital One’s provision for credit losses rose $1.4 billion to $4.1 billion in the quarter, including $3.8 billion of net charge-offs — loans written off as uncollectible — and a $302 million reserve build; loans held for investment rose 2% to $453.6 billion. “Our fourth quarter and full year results reflect solid top line growth and strong and stable credit performance,” Fairbank said, and the company reported a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio — a key bank capital measure — of 14.3% at Dec. 31 under Basel III rules. (Investing)
Before the numbers hit, options traders were leaning bullish. StreetInsider put the call/put ratio at 2.3-to-1, with a focus on February $230 calls and weekly implied volatility at 95 for options expiring Jan. 23. A call option gives the right to buy shares at a set price; a put gives the right to sell. (Streetinsider)
Brex adds a software business on top of Capital One’s big card franchise, but the payoff will depend on how fast the bank can scale it. Investors will be listening for where the revenue shows up — interchange fees, software-like fees, or just more balances.
But the deal is not done. It still needs regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, and Capital One has warned that the expected benefits may not be fully realized. A tougher credit backdrop would squeeze earnings just as Capital One tries to absorb another platform.
The Brex price tag also lands in a quarter where credit costs jumped and adjusted earnings missed estimates. That mix can make the market impatient, even when revenue holds up.
For now, investors have a split screen: a fintech purchase meant to widen Capital One’s business-payments reach, and a quarter where profit came in light. The next clues will come from management’s tone on credit losses, expenses and the clock on closing.
