A senior U.S. lawmaker asked the Federal Reserve on Thursday for more public scrutiny of Capital One Financial Corp's (COF.N) proposed purchase of ING Groep NV's (ING.AS) online bank ING Direct. Representative Barney Frank, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, seeking a 60-day extension of the public comment period on the deal and public hearings on it. "This proposed purchase would create the fifth-largest bank in the United States. For this reason alone, care should be taken to thoroughly examine the impact," Frank wrote. Capital One agreed in June to purchase ING Direct from the Dutch banking and insurance group for $9 billion in stock and cash. ING had to sell the business, one of the jewels of its retail banking franchise, as part of a deal with the European Commission following its October 2008 Dutch government bailout.
Capital One Financial Corporation is a diversified financial services holding company. Shares of COF fell by 5.08% or $-2.26/share to $42.21. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $35.94 and as high as $56.26. On average, 6442510 shares of COF exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3352128.
