NEW YORK - Capital One Financial Corp., the largest independent MasterCard and Visa credit card issuer, said on Thursday it would cut 280 jobs in its card business, as it shifts its business mix toward banking.
About 260 jobs will be eliminated in Richmond, Virginia, and 20 at the company's headquarters in McLean, Virginia, spokeswoman Julie Rakes said. Employees were notified on Wednesday of the cuts, which begin to take effect after 90 days.
"We're competing directly with the country's largest banks in the credit card business," Rakes said. "We're reorganizing the card business to have a more competitive cost structure and become more efficient."
The cuts represent about 5.8 percent of the 4,800-person unit, and will be made in marketing and analysis, customer operations, and technology divisions, Rakes said.
Capital One employs roughly 31,800 people companywide. Its main card rivals are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as American Express Co.
Capital One is reducing staffing in cards after spending about $18.2 billion in the last 18 months to buy two banks, North Fork Bancorp Inc. of Melville, New York, and Hibernia Corp. of New Orleans.
Rakes said the cuts were unrelated to recent weakness in the GreenPoint Mortgage unit that Capital One acquired when it bought North Fork. A surprise loss in the unit contributed to a 24 percent decline in first-quarter profit, to $675.1 million.
Capital One shares rose $1.45, or 1.9 percent, to $76.76 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and it was the only component of the 24-member Philadelphia KBW Bank Index to trade higher. The index was down 0.9 percent.
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