Capital One Financial Corporation (COF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to the 2021 Annual Stockholder Meeting of Capital One Financial Corporation. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Richard Fairbank, Chairman, CEO and President of Capital One. Mr. Fairbank, you may begin.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to our annual stockholder meeting. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and given our concerns with the health, safety and well-being of our stockholders, directors, officers and associates, we decided to hold our annual meeting in a virtual-only format again this year. We are grateful that you are joining us virtually this morning. On the call today are Andrew Young, our Chief Financial Officer. I -- and I want to say that this is Andrew's first shareholder meeting. He has just been appointed to be our CFO, taking over after actually 24 years of being here. He takes over for Scott Blackley. So Andrew, it's great having you in your new role, and I know the company is going to be very well served. Also with me today is John Finneran, our Corporate Secretary. We are also pleased to have with us this morning on the call the members of our Board of Directors: Ime Archibong, Ann Fritz Hackett, Tom Killalea, Eli Leenaars, Pierre Leroy, François Locoh-Donou, Peter Raskind, Eileen Serra, Mayo Shattuck, Brad Warner, Catherine West and Craig Williams. Before we begin, I'd like to take this opportunity to offer a word of thanks to our directors, Aparna Chennapragada, who left our Board of Directors effective March 18 of this year; and Pierre Leroy, who's 16 years of service on our Board comes to a close at the end of this meeting. Aparna has been a Director of Capital One since 2018 and Pierre has been a director since 2005, guiding Capital One into becoming one of the largest financial institutions in the nation. We thank Aparna and Pierre for their many valuable contributions to Capital One, and we wish them well in their future endeavors. Also on the call are Paul Haus and Lakshmi Algappan of Ernst & Young, our independent registered public accounting firm. And finally, we have on the call Jim Raitt of American Election Services, LLC, our Inspector of Elections for today's meeting to receive proxies to count the votes and to report the results of the voting. John Finneran will record the minutes of this meeting and will now present the notice of the meeting and report on other administrative matters. John?

Thank you, Rich, and good morning to everyone joining us this morning. As a reminder, please note that in today's meeting, we may make forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and change in circumstances. Numerous factors could cause our actual results and condition to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statements, including those factors that are described in the Risk Factors section in our annual and quarterly reports that are accessible in Capital One's Investor Relations website and filed with the SEC. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., who is Capital One's proxy distributor, has delivered an affidavit stating that the notices of Internet availability of the proxy statement and other proxy materials were first sent on or about March 24, 2021 to all stockholders of record as of March 10, 2021, which is the record date that was established by the Board of Directors to determine the stockholders entitled to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. In addition, we've made available for inspection an electronic list of all such stockholders, certified by our transfer agent, Compushare Trust Company (sic) [ Computershare Trust Company ]. This affidavit will be kept with the records of the meeting. Also, the Inspector of Elections has previously taken an oath of office, which will be filed with the records of this meeting. Rich, as of March 10, 2021, the record date for this meeting, there were 456,630,057 shares of common stock outstanding that are each entitled to 1 vote per share. The Inspector of Elections reports that the holders of at least 417,470,403 shares are present. This represents approximately 91.42% of all shares eligible to vote and constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business. Rich, let me turn it back to you.

Thanks, John. A quorum being present, I therefore declare the meeting open and ready for business. There are 4 matters to come before us today as listed in the notice of the meeting. I again call on John Finneran to review some procedures and address the matters brought before this meeting.

Thank you, Rich. The agenda and the rules of conduct for this meeting are available at the annual meeting web page at the bottom right side of the screen. [Operator Instructions] The Q&A will remain open until the end of the presentation that Rich will give later. If your question specifically concerns the matters to be voted on at this meeting, it will be addressed during the meeting. If your question does not relate to a specific proposal being brought before the meeting, we will hold it until the general Q&A following Richard's presentation. [Operator Instructions] If we receive similar questions, we may combine them into a single question. If we receive more questions than we're able to respond to during the time allotted for this meeting and your question is not answered, you're welcome to reach out to our Investor Relations team, who will be standing by after the meeting to speak with you. Contact information for our Investor Relations team can be found on our website. As noted in our rules of conduct, recording of this meeting is not permitted. A webcast playback of this meeting will be available after the meeting on our virtual shareholder meeting website. Most of you have already sent in your proxy or voted by Internet, telephone or mail. Your shares will be voted in accordance with your instructions. And if you've already voted, no further action is needed on your part. However, any stockholder who has not yet voted or who wishes to change his or her vote may do so by clicking on the Voting button found at the bottom right of their screen until the polls are closed. As a reminder, only stockholders of record and valid proxy holders may vote at this meeting. It is now 10:11 a.m. and the polls are open on all matters. We will now present the items to be voted on the meeting. After this, the polls will be closed, and no more votes will be accepted. The first matter brought before this meeting is the election of directors. The nominees for election as directors are Mr. Richard Fairbank, Mr. Ime Archibong, Ms. Ann Fritz Hackett, Mr. Peter Thomas Killalea, Mr. Cornelius Eli Leenaars, Mr. François Locoh-Donou, Mr. Peter Raskind, Ms. Eileen Serra, Mr. Mayo Shattuck, Mr. Bradford Warner; Ms. Catherine West and Mr. Craig Anthony Williams. Each nominee has been nominated by the current Board of Directors to serve as a member of the Board for a 1-year term, expiring at the Annual Stockholder Meeting in 2022. No other nominations have been received in accordance with Capital One's bylaws or the rules of the SEC. The second matter brought before this meeting is to ratify the selection of Ernst & Young LLP by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors as the independent registered public accounting firm of Capital One for 2021. The third matter brought before this meeting is to approve on a nonbinding advisory basis Capital One's 2020 named executive officer compensation. And the fourth matter brought before this meeting is to approve and adopt Capital One Financial Corporation Sixth Amended and Restated 2004 Stock Incentive Plan. The Board recommends that the stockholders vote in support of each of these proposals. Thank you. Rich, let me turn it back to you.

Thank you, John. Immediately following the formal business of the meeting. I will make a presentation to update all of you on the business of Capital One. We'll also provide additional time to respond to questions after the presentation. We will now turn to responding to the questions submitted through the annual meeting web page on matters specifically related to the matters to be voted on at this meeting. John?

Great. Thank you, Rich. We do have a question. This question is from Patrick Wilby. And Rich, it's directed to you. Mr. Chairman, The Carpenters Pension Funds hold a total of 622,850 shares of the company's stock. As long-term investors, we strongly believe that the company's executive compensation plan should be designed primarily to drive the successful execution of the Board's long-term strategic business plan. Today's public company executive compensation plans are largely formulaic, peer-related plans with simplistic annual say-on-pay voting, reinforcing plan homogeneity. Would you and the Chair of the Compensation Committee speak to whether Capital One might be better served by an executive compensation plan tailored specifically to the company's particular circumstances and its unique long-term strategic business plan? Rich, do you...

Okay. Well, thank you so much. I certainly really appreciate the spirit of the question there. And what I particularly love about the question, in a world where there's so many pressures out there for short-term performance, is how the question talks about compensation plans that drive and focus on and reward on long-term performance. And I -- as really, basically, Founder and CEO of this company from the -- now in its, what, 27th year of being a public company, our driving objective has been to focus on the long term. And so I've also very much wanted compensation consistent with that. And what I've said to our Board over time is I don't want to get paid -- I don't want to get paid in salary. I really like compensation that's focused on the long term. And for many, many years, all of my compensation was in equity long-term vesting, these kind of things. And it's an ironic thing that some of the other forces in the world pushed -- and these are all well-intentioned things, too, and -- but to have my compensation have a mix of a variety of things. But as -- and Mayo Shattuck, you may want to join here and give your point of view. He's Chairman of the Compensation Committee. But I am -- and absolutely, I'm all in, in running this company on doing what is best for the long term. I let all shareholders know that while we certainly look at short-term results, we are -- the long-term performance of the company is really what we are most focused on and it's the thing that we talk about the very most. I also hold a significant amount of equity in Capital One. I've retained shares from the compensation I've been fortunate to have for many, many years. And so I feel a personal long-term financial stake in the company in addition to being so all-in on this dream of building something great for the long term. Thank you so much for the question. And Mayo Shattuck, I don't know if you want to make any other comment there.

Sure, Rich. I would just add that I also and the whole Board appreciates the question because there's no doubt that we have the desire to reward long-term performance to get through cycles, and we have primarily leaned into the granting of equity awards to be consistent with that objective. Rich's pay package is composed of around 84% equity-based, as you heard him say. It was, at one point, 100%. I would say that we are at the far end of convention in this respect. And all of his payouts, even including the cash component of that, are deferred for 3 years, all awards are subject to clawback. So I believe we have a comp package consistent with the long-term objectives of the company. And in terms of how we award the quantitative amount of that package is also a function of a lot of variables -- 20 different variables, most of which really relate to long-term objectives, strategy, talent and so forth. So we push it probably farther than most of our peers to focus on that one element, long term.

Great. Thank you, Mayo and Rich. And thank you, Mr. Wilby, for the question. That was the only question that we had, Rich, that relates to the business of the meeting. So I think you can go ahead and announce the closing of the polls.

Okay. Thank you, John. It is 10:20 a.m. and the polls are now closed. John?

Yes. Thank you very much, Rich. So the Inspector of Elections has previously submitted to us the preliminary voting results, which I will now announce. The following are the preliminary voting results received from the Inspector of Elections. The final results will be publicly disclosed on a Form 8-K to be filed after the meeting with the SEC. On the first item, all nominees have been elected to serve as directors for a 1-year term, expiring at Capital One's Annual Stockholder Meeting to be held in 2022. The minimum percentage of shares of common stock voted in favor of any of these directors was approximately 87.4% of votes cast. The ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of Capital One for 2021 was approved, approximately 92.3% of the votes cast were for this item. Capital One's 2020 named executive officer compensation was approved on a nonbinding advisory basis. Approximately 93.3% of votes cast were for this item. And finally, the Capital One Financial Corporation Sixth Amended and Restated 2004 Stock Incentive Plan was approved and adopted, approximately 97.9% of votes were cast for this item. Capital One thanks its stockholders for their participation and support As a reminder, the final voting results for these matters will be disclosed on Form 8-K to be filed after the meeting. Rich, back to you.

Thank you very much, John. This concludes the formal business of the meeting and the 2021 Annual Stockholder Meeting of Capital One Financial Corporation is adjourned. Now I would like to make a brief presentation about Capital One. During the presentation, we will display slides right on the platform that you have signed on to. Also after the presentation, we will answer questions that you submit. You may submit questions until the end of the presentation, at which time the Q&A will close. So let me turn to -- just give a brief overview of how we're doing and where we're going and to give you a little sense of what makes this company what it is. 2020 was a year that none of us expected, and that's the understatement of the year. And really striking was how fast the pandemic changed everything. At Capital One, standing on the shoulders of our technology transformation, we moved the vast majority of our 52,000 associates to fully remote work in a period of 2 weeks. And we offered forbearance to our customers in hardship. So we were able to adapt quickly. And I think from a Capital One effectiveness and efficiency point of view, we've been struck at how well things have worked just in terms of the operations and the execution of our business. It's also so striking, just the speed of change in the world. The pandemic sent the economy into free fall. This time last year, the unemployment rate spiked to levels not seen since the Great Depression. And what's striking about this downturn, unlike so many others where there was a gradual rolling into the downturn that often was measured in months, if not years, in this case, everybody went down the down elevator in a sense at the very same time. Consumers, banks and the government all braced for impact. And I think a lot of what has happened from an economic and financial point of view relates to the fact that this downturn, unlike any of the others that I've certainly experienced in my journey, had such a precipitous drop that everyone experienced at the same time. Consumers pulled back on spending, banks offered broad forbearance on loans, and the government was maybe more so than other times able to muster the political support to pass fiscal stimulus, in this case, of a magnitude unprecedented since the Great Depression. Now in anticipation of a big surge in future potential credit losses, we, at Capital One, added billions of dollars to our allowance for loan loss. This build ran right through our P&L. and so our earnings fell precipitously. So first and second quarter earnings were negative. But a striking thing happened along the way to the recession. As a result of consumers pulling back on spending and the government providing so much stimulus, on average, the consumer was left with more money in their pocket. Now of course, averages don't tell the story of individual hardships, and we dealt with many of those one customer at a time, providing appropriate forbearance that really made a difference, but pulling way up to sort of the overall metrics here. There was sort of the great paradox happening during -- in the middle of the great pandemic. And that is that overall credit performance has improved. Here's a look at our charge-off rate. You can see that our charge-off rate has fallen during the pandemic. We've never seen that happen before in a downturn. And as a result, we have started releasing the allowance that we built, and that release goes through the P&L. So here's what's happened to earnings per share on a quarterly basis. After the big drop, we have posted record earnings these past 3 quarters. Now there's still a tremendous amount of uncertainty out there, especially the course of the pandemic. And here, while in America with the vaccines, cases are declining. What's happening in the rest of the world in many places is going in the opposite direction. There's still a lot of uncertainty, but it is certainly striking how this has played out to this point. Now let's turn to our investors and what they thought about all of this. Investors have tended to look past all the volatility. And strikingly, we are fortunate to be at our all-time high in stock price these days. So it's been quite a ride. Let me turn now to what else we're focusing on these days. We've invested for years to build our credit card franchise, continuing especially to build our franchise of primary spending relationships. Now the tip of the spear of this strategy has been our flagship rewards cards. We launched our Venture card in 2010, Quicksilver in 2013 and Savor in 2018. But building a spending franchise takes much more than just great products. It requires a premier customer experience to back it up and the and the building of a premium brand, and we have spent years investing in that. And our efforts have been rewarded. Here is the growth of spend on Capital One credit cards. And you can see down on the bottom, the year-over-year annual growth rates. It's pretty striking in a mature industry. Now 2020, you can see that our credit card spending declined. Credit card spending declined for all banks in 2020, but it has picked up strongly again in 2021. In fact, when we look at all the spend categories that our customers spend their money on, we -- basically, every category except for travel and entertainment, every category is above where it was before the pandemic. So it's certainly a comment on the economy and the growing traction and confidence of spending. But there's also -- with our numbers on top of just what's going on with the consumer is the continuing relative traction we're getting in the industry and the continued share gains. So we have led the industry in credit card spend growth on a sustained basis over the last 2 years, over the last 4 years and over the last 6 years. Now while the company's very first product, when we founded it, was credit cards, our story is not just about credit cards. In 1998, we entered the auto lending business with the belief that the industry could be transformed with information and analytics, just as we had done in the credit card business. And here is our growth since then. This is auto originations, which is the number of new auto loans that we book each year. And we are now one of the largest auto lenders in America. We've also invested to build a national bank, really working so hard to build checking and savings accounts and the national scale of customer relationships like we've built in our other businesses. Now most banks, as you know, are built around a model of local branches. We are investing to build what we think is the bank of the future, a digital bank, but not a bank with no physical presence. There are some banks out there that are going entirely without physical presence. We also believe in the importance of physical presence. So what we are building is a thin local presence. We have branch presence in some markets, which we've had from some time. And then across the rest of the country, we're building iconic cafes, which are showrooms for our products and our customer experiences. We have continued to gain traction with our national bank. Here is the growth of our consumer deposits over the last 8 years. Now you can see a huge surge in 2020. That surge really benefited from the growth of consumer savings during the pandemic. That's something that rose the tide for all banks. Let me now turn to the biggest thing that's going on at Capital One. And as most of you know, we founded our company 3 decades ago on the belief that information and technology would transform banking, beginning with credit cards. So we built our information-based technology company from the ground up, and that's what powered the growth of Capital One. Now the reason I mentioned that is that even though we had been a real pioneer in the late '80s, early '90s, coming out with technology and data-based strategies, in 2013, we came to the conviction that we had to completely rebuild our company once again from the bottom of the tech stack up in order to be able to leverage the revolutionary power of what was sweeping the world. And that's big data and machine learning in real time. When you think about the tech companies, when you pull out your iPhone and think about those apps that you use all the time, that beautiful, real-time customer experience in most cases is customized just for you, and what you experience is instant solutions customized for you. The -- our nerdy way of describing what's driving that, that's big data in real time powered by machine learning. That's what's powering the big tech companies, and that's where the world is going, and not just for customer experiences, but also for how companies work. If you look at a company like Amazon, leveraging real-time big data machine learning is behind everything they do from a technology perspective, how AWS works, how their distribution model works, just about everything. So I think that's the North Star of the destination of everything here is very compelling to us. And so in 2013, just like in the founding days, we went all in building a modern tech stack, in this case, in the cloud able to handle big data in real time. Let me pause for a moment to savor the transformational benefits of being on the public cloud. It's a game changer for any company who is able to get on it. And that last part is a really important little qualifier there, and I'll come back to that. But first of all, the benefits of the cloud. The cloud provides technology teams with hassle-free access to infrastructure. In most companies, what developers spend an awful lot of their time doing isn't necessarily developing those really cool apps that they want to build for customers. They spend a lot of their time managing down in the tech stack the infrastructural requirements and necessities that they face. So the cloud abstracts a lot of the challenges of managing infrastructure. The cloud also provides the ability to instantly scale up or down depending on the needs at the time. Cloud offers leading capabilities for resiliency and security. It also offers the opportunity to tap into the world's innovation on a continuing basis. Now that includes not only the tremendous innovation from the cloud providers themselves who are literally putting billions of dollars each year into enhancing their capabilities on their public cloud, but it also includes the innovation from the rest of the world's software companies who are building for the cloud. Now knowing the benefits of the cloud is the easy part. Transforming the company to go all-in on the cloud is a gigantic undertaking. But we did it. In 2020, we announced that we had fully exited our data centers and we were 100% in the cloud. Now modern tech companies who started in the last decade, they just begin in the cloud. They're born in the cloud, as we say. But only a handful of big companies not born in the cloud have made this transformation. And it really underscores one of the really fundamental challenges that Corporate America faces, is that most companies are sitting on legacy infrastructure. The companies have tremendous scale. They have lots of money. They have the market position, the brand. They have everything you'd love just about, but they're locked into their legacy infrastructure. And Corporate America is watching as the new generation of tech companies born in the cloud are more and more taking share. So we feel fortunate at Capital One to be so far along in our technology transformation. And now in the ninth year of that transformation, we're finding our opportunities accelerating. And we are leveraging big data in real time to achieve better underwriting, better fraud protection, better customer experience and faster innovation. So that's a glimpse of our technology journey. I want to be clear, it's not like we've -- it's not like the destination, the journey is over. In fact, this is a lifelong journey. It's a lifelong journey for every company because the world changes so fast. Another big area of focus at Capital One is our commitment to the customer. With our mission and the customer at the heart of every decision we make, we've been able to grow -- not only grow our customer base, but to grow our customer loyalty and advocacy. J.D. Power just released their annual rankings of customer satisfaction for national banks. And this is a rating of banking satisfaction. So we're going head-to-head with banks that have a branch on every corner, and there are a lot of benefits from that. But anyway, J.D. Powers' ranking had Capital One ranked #1 in customer satisfaction. So the story of Capital One continues to grow as we go all-in for modern technology and for the customer. But we -- another important thing we need to do is to let the world know of our story, and who better to tell it than our spokespeople who have a lot of fun talking about our products. And I just want to make a comment for a minute about our advertising. A lot of bank advertising can be pretty dry. And with our advertising, we like to have some fun. And it's a reflection of, in some ways, the culture of Capital One and trying not to take ourselves too seriously, but also to let folks know that this is not your typical bank. But behind the fun is a very serious message about our products. And we have been laser-focused to create products that have industry-leading value, and also another key aspect is the products are extremely simple so that anybody can understand them. There are not pages and pages of documentation around these products. We want them to be that -- exactly as they appear. And that's a great passion of ours. As our story has become better known, we have continued to build the Capital One brand, and that has helped power our growth. Now since the founding of the company, we believe that our most important job is the quest for great talent. And here's what we think about it. Anybody at Capital One who like runs a business because we really say, our -- still our #1 like line job is to search the world for great talent and then create an environment where they can be great. And we've known that if we do that, if we do that well, it creates a flywheel, which continues to enhance the talent we can get and the experience that we can deliver. Now while we don't do anything for the purpose of winning awards, we are pleased to have been recognized as a leading employer. Fortune Magazine just released its ranking of the Top 100 Places to Work. And we've really been struck by this survey, in particular, because Fortune doesn't come and ask me, do I think Capital One is a great place to work. I would tell them, I really do believe it's a great place to work. But what they do is they ask our own people. And so they did that in these surveys. They asked like thousands of associates -- randomly selected associates what they think. And so we were pleased that for the 10th time in a row, Capital One made the list. And this year, we came in at our highest spot yet at #9. The Capital One story is an unlikely one. And when I reflect on our journey, first thing I'm struck by is the good fortune that we have had. There are a lot of great companies that were start-ups that had a wonderful dream, and just some things didn't work out. And I'm always struck by how a number of planets aligned over time and we had some good fortune on this journey. But we've -- there's kind of an old saying that fortune has a lot to do, sometimes you have to help it along And what we've tried to do at Capital One is, in a world of no guarantees, try to put the odds in our favor. And how do we do that? A key part of that, and kind of as I've been referring to, is how we do strategy and our talent philosophy. So for example, with strategy, we don't start with Capital One and say, how can we be better? We strategically focus on where the world is going and where winning is. And then we go all-in to build that. The other thing we do is to search the world for great talent, for every job, for every one of our 52,000 jobs that we have search, the world for great talent. And then focus on building an environment where they can be great. And so the unlikely journey of Capital One continues. In the 27th year since our IPO, we feel our opportunity is accelerating. There are no guarantees, but we like our chances. And that ends my presentation. So I'll open it up for Q&A. John?

Great. Thank you, Rich. We do have a couple of questions. And again, Rich this one is directed to you, and it comes from Patrick Wilby. Mr. Chairman, the topic of stakeholder capitalism or an alternative to shareholder capitalism has received considerable attention recently. As long-term pension fund investors, The Carpenters Funds appreciate the sentiments embodied in the stakeholder capitalism perspective. I feel that execution could be complicated. Could you please discuss the Board's perspective on the concept of stakeholder capitalism and what principles the Board would use to balance the interest of varied stakeholders the company's long-term business strategy? Thank you.

Mr. Wilby, that is a great question and one that I've got a lot of passion about. Let me start by saying, look, I don't think there are easy answers. I don't think there's a formulaic way that one can answer a question like this. But I want to partly answer the question by talking about in the founding of Capital One. And I remember at the time of our IPO when we sat down with our little team and said, there are going to be many pressures that we face and I'm sure we don't know fully what we're getting into. But we said, look, we -- you only go through life once. Let's try to really build a company that we want to work for, build a company that we are proud of and a company that we think can make a real contribution to the world. And that's a many stakeholder perspective, inherently in what we're talking about. And we know that there -- that if we don't deliver strong financial results, we're not going to probably be long for this company. And we understand that financial performance matters. The key philosophy we've taken there is, first of all, long-term financial performance is the key. I've looked around and seen in the world, so many pressures CEOs are under, so many choices companies make, and I'm not faulting them, but choices they make that optimize the short term but I think, in some ways, put them in harm's way for the long term. And what I have taken as a philosophy, and I think we and our Board have embraced, is the notion that we're going to focus on the long term, and long term -- and with respect to financial performance, doing the things that create the best chances for long-term performance. We know, by the way, you need to get there from here. So short-term financial performance also matters as guidepost to the long term. But as I say to shareholders, you should understand, I'm focused on the long term. And our quest is to create great things, and with respect to our shareholder constituency, long-term returns. The -- but we -- every company has a choice on how they're going to handle other stakeholders. I want you to know, Mr. Wilby, that we have a mission. And the mission -- the jingle of the mission is change banking for good. Now lots of companies can have nice sounding jingles. In the end, it's the choices that are made on the way to -- on the way. And I think that our associates, when they -- and that's true in any company, that the associates will look at the choices that a company makes that -- that management makes to say, are they taking the mission literally or is it a nice sounding jingle? And I tell our associates, I want you to take this mission literally. And the choices that you make, the customer interaction you have, the products you're designing, and I say, that, that is the standard that we use. And I think that we've had an incredible energy inside the company on this. In a recent shareholder survey, 90-some percent of our associates said that they believe in our mission, which in a world of cynical -- cynicism, I'm really kind of heartened by this. So the customers are at the center of our focus. There are other constituencies that are incredibly important. Communities are really important. Capital One -- when we built a company of very high-powered talent and searching the world for the very greatest, I wondered, with all these busy highly motivated people that were way ahead of where I was at a similar point in my career, how much time would they have to pour into their communities. And I have been amazed that -- as I always say, look, we're giving money, and that's a good thing. But the greatest gift is the gift of time, the gift of heart, the gift of caring, the gift of love to go out in the communities and drive the many quests that we have, including education and equality and many other things. So we don't have a formula for these things, but I believe that not -- here's what I really believe in the end, that caring about the other constituencies in the end is even the best thing long term for shareholders. Because companies that care will have in the -- over time, will attract more customers and they'll attract the kind of employee base that really cares. And that's been a key part of Capital One. And in many ways, proud as I am of some of the financial numbers we have, what really makes me proud and keeps me the most going is the heart-based quest that this company has represented. Thank you so much for your question.

Thank you, Rich. And so our last question is from Justin Danhof of The National Center of Public Policy Research. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Capital One supports the Equality Act. First, is that true? And second, in light of the criticism from scholars and legal experts that the law would eviscerate female sports and cancel federal religious freedom protections, does the company support the entire Equality Act or just portions of it? And if you could elaborate with specifics, that would be great. So thank you very much for the question, Mr. Danhof. Let me start by just referring everyone to the public statement that we made back at the end of February, which can be found on our website, capitalone.com in the Newsroom section. So yes, Capital One does support the Equality Act. We do so because we think it's consistent with our values, that we believe everybody should have the certainty of knowing that they can't be fired, evicted, declined credit or refused basic services because of their gender, their race, their ethnicity, or in the case of the Equality Act, because of whom they love or how they would like to be -- how they identify. At Capital One, we have found that our diversity and inclusivity has made us stronger, makes us more innovative, nimble and resilient. And we're committed to attract -- to advancing a culture of belonging for all of our associates because we know that in doing so, we improve the lives of our people, our business and our communities. And that is why we're very invested in the passage of the act. Again, thank you so much for that question, and please do take a look at the full that's available on our website. Rich, that was the last question.

Okay. John, thank you. And Mr. Danhof, thank you so much for your question and the energy and passion behind that. John, thank you for your eloquent answer there. I want to thank everyone for your attendance at the meeting today. If you have other questions that weren't -- that you didn't get a chance to answer today or that you think of at another time, you can contact our Investor Relations team at [email protected]. They will be standing by after this call to speak with you. So thanks again, everyone, and I look forward to -- I -- there are certain benefits to having this shareholder meeting remotely because we get a much broader reach geographically, of course. I also look forward to seeing some of you in person at some point when we return back to normal. But thank you very much for being with us today.

That concludes the meeting. You may disconnect at this time.