CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORP

The level and composition of our capital are determined by multiple factors, including our consolidated regulatory capital requirements as described in more detail below and internal risk-based capital assessments such as internal stress testing. The level and composition of our capital may also be influenced by rating agency guidelines, subsidiary capital requirements, business environment, conditions in the financial markets and assessments of potential future losses due to adverse changes in our business and market environments.

Capital Standards and Prompt Corrective Action

The Company and the Bank are subject to the regulatory capital requirements established by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Federal Reserve”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), respectively (the “Basel III Capital Rules”). The Basel III Capital Rules implement certain capital requirements published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (“Basel Committee”), along with certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”) and other capital provisions.

As a bank holding company (“BHC”) with total consolidated assets of at least$250 billion but less than$700 billion and not exceeding any of the applicable risk-based thresholds, the Company is a Category III institution under the Basel III Capital Rules.

The Bank, as a subsidiary of a Category III institution, is a Category III bank. Moreover, the Bank, as an insured depository institution, is subject to prompt corrective action (“PCA”) capital regulations.

Basel III and U.S. Capital Rules

Under the Basel III Capital Rules, we must maintain a minimum CET1 capital ratio of 4.5%, a Tier 1 capital ratio of 6.0% and a total capital ratio of 8.0%, in each case in relation to risk-weighted assets. In addition, we must maintain a minimum leverage ratio of 4.0% and a minimum supplementary leverage ratio of 3.0%. We are also subject to the capital conservation buffer requirement and countercyclical capital buffer requirement, each as described below. Our capital and leverage ratios are calculated based on the Basel III standardized approach framework.

We have elected to exclude certain elements of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) from our regulatory capital as permitted for a Category III institution. For information on the recognition of AOCI in regulatory capital under the proposed changes to the Basel III Capital Rules, see “Part I—Item 1. Business—Supervision and Regulation—Prudential Regulation of Banking—Capital and Stress Testing Regulation—Basel III Finalization Proposal” in our 2023 Form 10-K.

Global systemically important banks (“G-SIBs”) that are based in the U.S. are subject to an additional CET1 capital requirement known as the “G-SIB Surcharge.” We are not a G-SIB based on the most recent available data and thus we are not subject to a G-SIB Surcharge.

Stress Capital Buffer Rule

The Basel III Capital Rules require banking institutions to maintain a capital conservation buffer, composed of CET1 capital, above the regulatory minimum ratios. Under the Federal Reserve’s final rule to implement the stress capital buffer requirement (“Stress Capital Buffer Rule”), the Company’s “standardized approach capital conservation buffer” includes its stress capital buffer requirement (as described below), any G-SIB Surcharge (which is not applicable to us) and the countercyclical capital buffer requirement (which is currently set at 0%). Any determination to increase the countercyclical capital buffer generally would be effective twelve months after the announcement of such an increase, unless the Federal Reserve, OCC and the FDIC, hereafter collectively referred to as the “Federal Banking Agencies,” set an earlier effective date.

The Company’s stress capital buffer requirement is recalibrated every year based on the Company’s supervisory stress test results. In particular, the Company’s stress capital buffer requirement equals, subject to a floor of 2.5%, the sum of (i) the difference between the Company’s starting CET1 capital ratio and its lowest projected CET1 capital ratio under the severely adverse scenario of the Federal Reserve’s supervisory stress test plus (ii) the ratio of the Company’s projected four quarters of common stock dividends (for the fourth to seventh quarters of the planning horizon) to the projected risk-weighted assets for the quarter in which the Company’s projected CET1 capital ratio reaches its minimum under the supervisory stress test.

Based on the Company’s 2023 supervisory stress test results, the Company’s stress capital buffer requirement for the period beginning on October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024 is 4.8%. Therefore, the Company’s minimum capital requirements plus the standardized approach capital conservation buffer for CET1 capital, Tier 1 capital and total capital ratios under the stress capital buffer framework are 9.3%, 10.8% and 12.8%, respectively, for the period from October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.

The Stress Capital Buffer Rule does not apply to the Bank. Pursuant to the OCC’s capital regulations, which are only applicable to the Bank, the capital conservation buffer for the Bank continues to be fixed at 2.5%. Accordingly, the Bank’s minimum capital requirements plus its capital conservation buffer for CET1 capital, Tier 1 capital and total capital ratios are 7.0%,8.5% and 10.5%, respectively.

If the Company or the Bank fails to maintain its capital ratios above the minimum capital requirements plus the applicable capital conservation buffer requirements, it will face increasingly strict automatic limitations on capital distributions and discretionary bonus payments to certain executive officers.

As of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively, the Company and the Bank each exceeded the minimum capital requirements and the capital conservation buffer requirements applicable to them, and the Company and the Bank were each “well-capitalized.” The “well-capitalized” standards applicable to the Company are established in the Federal Reserve’s regulations, and the “well-capitalized” standards applicable to the Bank are established in the OCC’s PCA capital requirements.

CECL Transition Rule

The Federal Banking Agencies adopted a final rule (the “CECL Transition Rule”) that provides banking institutions an optional five-year transition period to phase in the impact of the current expected credit losses (“CECL”) standard on their regulatory capital (“CECL Transition Election”). We adopted the CECL standard (for accounting purposes) as of January 1, 2020, and made the CECL Transition Election (for regulatory capital purposes) in the first quarter of 2020. Therefore, the applicable amounts presented in this Report reflect such election.

Pursuant to the CECL Transition Rule, a banking institution could elect to delay the estimated impact of adopting CECL on its regulatory capital through December 31, 2021 and then phase in the estimated cumulative impact from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024. For the “day 2” ongoing impact of CECL during the initial two years, the Federal Banking Agencies used a uniform “scaling factor” of 25% as an approximation of the increase in the allowance under the CECL standard compared to the prior incurred loss methodology. Accordingly, from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021, electing banking institutions were permitted to add back to their regulatory capital an amount equal to the sum of the after-tax “day 1” CECL adoption impact and 25% of the increase in the allowance since the adoption of the CECL standard. From January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024, the after-tax “day 1” CECL adoption impact and the cumulative “day 2” ongoing impact are being phased in to regulatory capital at 25% per year. The following table summarizes the capital impact delay and phase in period on our regulatory capital from years 2020 to 2025.

As of December 31, 2021, we added back an aggregate amount of $2.4 billion to our regulatory capital pursuant to the CECL Transition Rule. Consistent with the rule, we have phased in 75% of this amount as of January 1, 2024. The remaining $600 million will be phased in on January 1, 2025. As of March 31, 2024, the Company’s CET1 capital ratio, reflecting the CECL Transition Rule, was 13.1% and would have been 13.0% excluding the impact of the CECL Transition Rule (or “on a fully phased-in basis”).

Market Risk Rule

The “Market Risk Rule” supplements the Basel III Capital Rules by requiring institutions subject to the rule to adjust their risk-based capital ratios to reflect the market risk in their trading book. The Market Risk Rule generally applies to institutions with aggregate trading assets and liabilities equal to 10% or more of total assets or $1 billion or more. As of March 31, 2024, the Company and the Bank are subject to the Market Risk Rule. See “Market Risk Profile” below for additional information.

For the description of the regulatory capital rules to which we are subject, including recent proposed amendments to these rules under the Basel III Finalization Proposal, see “Part I—Item 1. Business—Supervision and Regulation” in our 2023 Form 10-K.