Virginia’s own Capital One, which employed data-mining to make credit cards available to 50 million customers, formally opened its new building on the Beltway last week.
Virginia’s Gov. Mark Warner, whose support of technology helped get him elected, was the guest of honor at an April 9 ceremony, which featured crab legs, live jazz and the self-deprecating humor of the company’s two founders, chairman and CEO Rich Fairbank and president and COO Nigel Morris.
Their concept, developed in a single afternoon, used technology to unearth data to find a way to make credit available to everyone, not just prime borrowers with low credit scores.
Warner called it “a Virginia success story” that is “unrivaled. These two guys decided to form it here, grow it here, and keep their headquarters here,” he said.
He thanked Nigel Morris, Capital One’s chief operating officer, for helping with a “re-examination of everything we do in state government: to make it “a more efficient and effective state government.”
He joked that from the vantage point of his 14th floor office with its “stellar view of the Beltway in both directions,” Morris would make his personal telephone numbers available 24/7 to provide traffic information to anyone who called.
Morris joked back, saying Capital One had considered many names for the new street that connects its building with Springhouse Drive and Route 123.
“WE CONSIDERED Capital One Drive and Gerry Connolly Boulevard,” he said, joking that the Kate Hanley Art Gallery and Vince Callahan Coffee Shop had also been considered for the building.
Naming the road Mark Warner Way would have been “nice for the governor to get his way, once in a while,” he joked.
He said opening the building in the company of state and local officials “feels like home.”
“Thank you all so much for coming along,” he said, acknowledging the presence of Virginia Dels. Jim Scott (D-53rd), Jeannemarie Devolites (R-35th), Tim Hugo (R-40th), Jim Dillard (R-41st) and Ken Plum (D-36th).
State Sen. Janet Howell (D-32nd) and Providence District planning commissioner Linda Smyth; Hugh Keough, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce; former Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce president James Dyke; and George Mason University president Alan Merton also attended.
Providence District supervisor Connolly (D), whose district includes the new building, said Capital One’s new headquarters was built at “a transit-oriented site” so its employees can use Metro to commute to work.
“Fairfax County is an amazing place,” said Fairbank, noting that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had asked him, “How much does it cost to keep the lights on” in the new building?
He said because “all the offices are in the interior,” of the building, the lights stay on “all the time.
“It symbolized how we think about our company,” Fairbank said.
CAPITAL ONE used varied interest rates and credit limits and
transformed the concept of a credit card from a privilege enjoyed only by the most creditworthy customers to a right to which virtually everyone is entitled.
Capital One acknowledged that customers evolve through different kinds of credit ratings, and it actually sought out customers in a “subprime” phase of their lives by offering them lower interest rates for a limited time when they transferred their debts to Capital One.
By offering varied interest rates and payback plans, and by tying credit cards to special interest groups, Capital One has became ubiquitous in its field, with a product tailored for anyone.
In 1988, when it was founded, almost every credit card charged the same thing: an interest rate of 19.8 percent and an annual fee of $20.
In 1991, Capital One paired with relatively small Signet Bank, another Virginia company, and began shaking up the credit card market with an offer to transfer balances at a low rate of interest.
Building on that success, the company more and more used market testing and the resulting data to tailor its offers to what people wanted.
Now, they can get “designer cards” that feature their alma maters or their favorite causes, sometimes offering to share their profits with the institution whose logo appears on the card.
California native Fairbank, who holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, partnered with Nigel Morris, whose M.B.A. is from the London Business School, to devise an international approach to their business.