Overview
Discover Financial Services is a digital banking and payment services company.
Capital One Financial Corp. in February 2024 signed a deal to acquire Discover.
Discover’s headquarters is in Riverwoods, Illinois, near Chicago.
Datacenter
Discover Financial Services—ad spending, facts and profile
Stats and facts on the biggest U.S. and global advertisers
Credit:
Ad Age composite
Business segments and operations
Discover offers credit cards, personal loans, home loans and deposit products.
It also operates the Discover Network, the Pulse Network and Diners Club International, collectively known as the Discover Global Network.
The Discover Network processes transactions for Discover-branded credit and debit cards and provides payment transaction processing and settlement services.
Pulse operates an electronic funds transfer network, providing financial institutions issuing debit cards on the Pulse network with access to automated teller machines domestically and internationally, as well as merchant acceptance in the U.S. for debit card transactions.
Diners Club is a global payments network of licensees, which are generally financial institutions, that issue Diners Club-branded charge cards and/or provide card acceptance services.
Marketing spending
Ad Age Datacenter ranks Discover among advertisers based on Discover’s stated “marketing and business development” expenses.
Discover also disclosed “advertising costs” of $359 million in 2023, up 16.7% from $307 million in 2022. Advertising costs are part of Discover’s marketing and business development expense line.
The company disclosed the following marketing and business development expenses:
2023 (year ended Dec. 31, 2023): $1.164 billion
2022 (year ended Dec. 31, 2022): $1.035 billion
2021 (year ended Dec. 31, 2021): $810.0 million
2020 (year ended Dec. 31, 2020): $659.0 million
2019 (year ended Dec. 31, 2019): $883.0 million
2018 (year ended Dec. 31, 2018): $857.0 million
2017 (year ended Dec. 31, 2017): $776.0 million
2016 (year ended Dec. 31, 2016): $731.0 million
2015 (year ended Dec. 31, 2015): $745.0 million
2014 (year ended Dec. 31, 2014): $735.0 million
2013 (year ended Dec. 31, 2013): $717.0 million
2012 (year ended Nov. 30, 2012): $603.0 million
2011 (year ended Nov. 30, 2011): $537.5 million
2010 (year ended Nov. 30, 2010): $463.1 million
2009 (year ended Nov. 30, 2009): $406.0 million
2008 (year ended Nov. 30, 2008): $530.9 million
2007 (year ended Nov. 30, 2007): $576.3 million
The 10-K annual regulatory filing for the year ended December 2023 said: “The marketing and business development increase was due primarily from growth investments in consumer banking products.”
The 10-K for the year ended December 2022 said: “The increase in marketing and business development was driven by growth investments in card and consumer banking.”
The 10-K for the year ended December 2021 said marketing and business development costs “increased due to growth investments, primarily in card, and increased brand marketing.”
The 10-K for the year ended December 2020 said marketing costs decreased “due to COVID-19 related expense reductions in brand advertising for card.”
Brand and advertising management:
The 10-K for the year ended December 2023 said this about brand and advertising management:
“We maintain a full-service marketing department charged with delivering integrated mass and direct communications to foster customer engagement with our products and services.
“We also leverage strategic partnerships and sponsorship properties such as the NHL and the Big Ten Conference to help drive loan growth.
“Our brand team utilizes consumer insights and market intelligence to define our mass communication strategy, create multi-channel advertising messages and develop marketing partnerships with sponsorship properties. This work is performed in-house as well as with a variety of external agencies and vendors.”
Links to Ad Age’s advertiser rankings
Latest rankings: U.S.
The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Oct. 28, 2024.
Past rankings: U.S.
Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2023
Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022
Latest rankings: worldwide
The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Dec. 9, 2024.
Past rankings: worldwide
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022
Financial results
See more: Discover financial results
Read Discover’s annual filing
Deals and strategic moves
Acquisition by Capital One (pending):
Capital One in February 2024 signed a deal to buy rival Discover in an all-stock transaction valued at $35.3 billion.
Other deals and strategic moves:
Discover in 2012 bought Tree.com’s Home Loan Center business. (Tree.com in 2015 changed its corporate name to LendingTree.)
Discover in 2010 bought Student Loan Corp., a private student-loan business in which Citigroup’s Citibank previously had an 80% stake. Student Loan Corp. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Discover Bank. Discover stopped accepting new applications for private student loans in 2024.
Citigroup in June 2008 sold Diners Club International, a credit card services operation, to Discover for $168 million. Diners Club has network licensees—generally financial institutions—that issue Diners Club-branded credit cards and/or provide card acceptance services.
Management and employees
Stock
Discover trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Ticker: DFS
History
Discover was started by Sears, Roebuck & Co. as part of the retailer’s efforts in the 1980s to create a financial supermarket. Sears launched the Discover credit card nationally in 1986 following test marketing in 1985.
Sears spun off Dean Witter, Discover & Co. in 1993. Dean Witter, Discover & Co. merged with Morgan Stanley Group in 1997.
Morgan Stanley spun off Discover Financial Services to shareholders in 2007. Rival Mastercard went public in 2006. Visa went public in 2008.
Sears Holdings Corp., the parent of Sears, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in October 2018. ESL Investments, through its Transform Holdco LLC affiliate, in February 2019 bought the key assets of Sears Holdings Corp. ESL Investments is run by Edward Lampert, the former chairman-CEO of Sears Holdings.
