Image: Discover’s shares have faced pressure due to a card misclassification issue and the resignation of CEO Roger Hochschild.
Discover Financial’s (DFS) shares have faced a difficult 52-week stretch as corporate news hasn’t been great. The company’s equity is down nearly 14%, while the S&P 500 (SPY) is up more than 8% over the same time stretch. Though Discover has the potential to bounce back from the troubles it has encountered, the firm has certainly been in hot water since it disclosed a card product misclassification.
From its press release on July 19:
Beginning around mid-2007, Discover incorrectly classified certain credit card accounts into our highest merchant and merchant acquirer pricing tier. Incremental revenue resulting from this card product misclassification amounted to less than 1% of our cumulative discount and interchange revenue, gross, since that time, or less than two basis points as a percentage of sales over this timeframe. The misclassification affected pricing for certain merchants and merchant acquirers, but not for cardholders. Based on information available as of June 30, 2023, the Company determined that the revenue impact of the incorrect card product classification was not material to the consolidated financial statements of the Company for any of the impacted periods. Notwithstanding, for go-forward comparative purposes, the Company corrected the recognition of discount and interchange revenue as well as the related impacts to assets, liabilities and retained earnings in all prior periods presented. After adjusting for tax effects, the cumulative impact to beginning retained earnings as of April 1, 2023, was a decrease of $255 million, and the impact to net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, was a reduction of $8 million. As of June 30, 2023, the Company’s consolidated financial statements reflect a liability of $365 million within accrued expenses and other liabilities to provide refunds to merchants and merchant acquirers as a result of the card product misclassification.
Management is taking actions to correct the card product misclassification going forward and to prepare a program to compensate affected direct merchants and merchant acquirers. However, given differences in individual merchant agreements, changes in network terms, and availability of historical data, it is difficult to determine the final amount of potential refunds at this time. An investigation into this issue by an external law firm working at the direction of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors is ongoing.
Discover is in discussions with its regulators regarding this matter and corporate governance and risk management. In addition, the Company received a proposed consent order from the FDIC in connection with consumer compliance. This proposed consent order does not include the card product classification matter. Additional supervisory actions could occur.
Discover’s internal controls have not been up to par, and concerns over its corporate oversight were punctuated by the departure of Discover CEO Roger Hochschild, who resigned on August 14, with John Owen taking over as interim CEO. Aside from the disclosure regarding the firm’s card product misclassification, it’s uncertain if there may be other skeletons in the closet, and just how fast Discover will bounce back from the negative perception.
Though Discover is not included in any simulated newsletter portfolio, the string of events only bolsters the investment case for paying close attention to environmental (E), Social (S), and Governance (G) issues. We’ll have more to say about Discover as further news on the company comes in. As it relates to credit card entities, we tend to prefer Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) as our favorites, with the former a top weighting in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio.
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Brian Nelson owns shares in SPY, SCHG, QQQ, DIA, VOT, BITO, RSP, and IWM. Valuentum owns SPY, SCHG, QQQ, VOO, and DIA. Brian Nelson’s household owns shares in HON, DIS, HAS, NKE, DIA, and RSP. Some of the other securities written about in this article may be included in Valuentum’s simulated newsletter portfolios. Contact Valuentum for more information about its editorial policies.
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