Taking a hit from credit cards: Capital One Financial Corp., one of the largest U.S. credit card issuers, reported a second-quarter loss of $275.5 million as the amount of uncollectible debt grew. But the company noted that delinquencies slowed in the quarter. Capital One, which has 28 branches in metro Baton Rouge, lost 65 cents per share in the quarter compared with a profit of $452.9 million, or $1.21 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell to $3.18 billion from $3.35 billion last year, as the increase in net interest income from loans was more than offset by a drop in non-interest income, which comes from fees and other sources.
New culture taking hold? Entrepreneur magazine has a cover story about the entrepreneurial uprising that’s happening in post-Katrina New Orleans. The magazine spotlights Intellectual Property, a Magazine Street building that has become a hub for emerging technology companies. “As someone who cut his teeth in the Bay Area during the dotcom boom, it’s my opinion that we have an opportunity in New Orleans to recreate what we saw there in the late 1990s, or what Austin or Seattle has done,” says Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc. Read the cover story here.
