Capital One adding 300 jobs

Already the region's largest private employer, fast-growing Capital One Financial Corp. says it will add 300 more jobs here by the end of the year.

The company expects to hire even more employees next year, though it did not say how many.

"Richmond has been a great place for us to hire and retain really good talent," Katherine Busser, Capital One's executive vice president for bank operations, said Friday.

In October 2010, Capital One said it expected to add more than 1,000 jobs in Virginia this year, but the company far exceeded that target.

The banking and credit card company — one of the nation's largest banks — added about 2,300 positions in the Richmond area this year, 1,800 of them in Henrico County alone.

Capital One will employ more than 10,000 people in the metropolitan region by year's end, Busser said.

The 300 new jobs will be in bank and card operations at its Henrico operations center, the company said, and information technology as well as other business and support roles at its Goochland County main location.

"They're doing exactly what I've asked people to do," Gov. Bob McDonnell said of Capital One. "They're taking risks and creating jobs in a tough economy."

And with Christmas two weeks away, he quipped, "my wife will continue to use her [Capital One credit] card frequently."

McDonnell joined government and company officials, and about 100 Capital One employees, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for two office buildings — Knolls 4 and Knolls 5 — that the company bought and refurbished in western Henrico's Innsbrook office park as a result of its strong growth.

Capital One also plans to open a branch bank with a small staff at its Innsbrook location, its second branch in metropolitan Richmond, sometime in 2012, officials said.

The company announced in September that it will locate a commercial bank group in downtown Richmond, in the Williams Mullen Center. The financial firm expects about 45 people will work in the new office, opening in early 2012.

"Economic development is the lifeblood of Henrico County," said County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett. "We provide all those [public] services through, of course, economic development. It helps us reduce taxes."

As of Jan. 1, Capital One Financial Corp. was the Richmond region's largest private-sector employer with 7,871 employees. The next largest was Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, which employed 7,741 people.

With the addition of the two Knolls buildings to three other buildings, the company has created a campus environment in Innsbrook for its call center and operations workers. The company paid $17.5 million for the two buildings.

"We started moving in the summer," said company spokeswoman Julie Rakes, "and we're about fully staffed. We have about 900 or so people there now" in the Knolls 4 and 5 buildings.

Formerly occupied by Wachovia Securities, the two Innsbrook buildings became vacant about two years ago after the brokerage firm merged with A.G. Edwards and moved to St. Louis.

McLean-based Capital One's main operations are in the West Creek office park in eastern Goochland.

This summer, Capital One announced its acquisition of ING Bank FSB and an agreement to buy the U.S. card and retail services business of HSBC Holdings Plc, which pushed it into the seventh position on Charlottesville-based SNL Financial's ranking of the nation's 50 largest banks and thrifts by assets, up from ninth a year ago.

Though he was unable to attend Friday's ceremony, U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, congratulated Capital One on its new operations center in Henrico, noting that since the start of McDonnell's administration, Capital One has created more than 3,500 jobs in Virginia.

"I thank them for the confidence they have placed in our community," Cantor said. "In the past year, Capital One has continued to expand their business, created hundreds of high-quality jobs and boosted our local economy."