What's In Your Wallet?

Got nothing in ours. AP (01.10.08):

"Capital One Financial Corp. said early Thursday that its 2007 earnings will fall short of the company's previous expectations because of increased loan delinquencies and additional legal reserves in the fourth quarter."

Capital One Cuts 2007 Earnings Forecast

They're "taking a $1.9 billion provision for loan losses in the fourth quarter, including about $1.3 billion in charge-offs."

They also said they're "adding about $650 million to its charge-off allowance because of recent delinquencies in its consumer lending businesses and 'continued deterioration' of approximately $700 million of home equity lines of credit originated by its GreenPoint Mortgage unit, which shut down in August."

Two months ago, they predicted "$4.9 billion to $5.5 billion" of charge-offs in November. Now they've upped that to "about $5.9 billion in 2008 amid expectations that the U.S. economy will be weaker."

And that's not all! "The company said it initiated a $60 million legal reserve for possible damages in pending litigation involving the Visa credit card network, of which Capital One is a member. Capital One previously said it was taking a fourth-quarter pre-tax charge of about $80 million for liabilities in connection with the antitrust settlement that Visa reached in November in American Express Co."

Can't be all bad then. At least the lawyers are making money.