Big banks are positioning themselves as technology companies — and they have the patent portfolios to prove it. 

Investments in technology in the past decade have “made banks key players in the technology ecosystem,” Rocky Berndsen, head of patent analytics at patent preparation and prosecution firm Harrity & Harrity, told Bank Automation News. Banks, he said, have patent portfolios that reflect the following strengths: 

• Cybersecurity; 

• Authentication; 

• Software engineering; 

• Cloud architecture; and 

• AI-enabled solutions. 

Banks are claiming top spots for their AI innovation efforts when it comes to patented technology, according to Harrity’s 2025 AI Patent 100 List, which ranks the top companies obtaining U.S. patents in 2024 in AI. In fact, banks are standing tall against tech giants Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple.

Capital One, which completed its acquisition of Discover Financial Services earlier this year, is the highest-ranking bank on the list, in sixth place overall with 472 AI patents approved in 2024, up 14% year over year.  

Ranking ahead of Capital One are the following tech companies: 

1. Alphabet; 
2. Samsung; 
3. IBM; 
4. Amazon; and 
5. Microsoft. 

“Capital One, in particular, has publicly embraced its tech-first identity — operating its own cloud infrastructure, building proprietary machine learning platforms and maintaining active engineering teams focused on areas like cybersecurity, data analytics and customer experience innovation,” Berndsen said. 

3 ingredients for innovation

At $659 billion Capital One, Sanjiv Yajnik is president of the financial services division and the owner of 25 patents with more pending. He told BAN there are three main “ingredients” that feed innovation at the bank’s auto division which he leads.

1. Talent: When developing its talent, Capital One Auto is looking for professionals who approach problems holistically, rather than in a siloed manner, Yajnik said. For example, Capital One Auto doesn’t want one solution to solve a marketing problem, another to solve an analytics issue and a third to address the tech side. 
2. A modern tech stack: At Capital One, innovation starts from the bottom up, with a modern technology stack encompassing data architecture and infrastructure. A modern tech stack in the cloud allows a company to be nimble and innovative. “This is a really important part of the patent story,” he said. 
3. Infrastructure: Having infrastructure that is built for innovation, he said. “You can have all the technology, all the talent, but if you structure yourself in the wrong way, you can’t get there,” he said. 

“One of the key reasons you’re seeing Capital One Auto create so many patents is we have an infrastructure that is built for innovation,” Yajnik said. 

‘Every brain in the game’

Capital One Auto does not limit innovation to one particular team, instead recognizing that anyone has the ability to spawn new ideas, Yajnik said. 

“Some of the most junior people have the freshest ideas,” he said, noting that it’s important to listen to all voices.  

He calls this strategy “every brain in the game.” 

Patenting technologies is not an activity limited to engineers, Yajnik added, noting that the technical piece of engineering can now be done by advanced software and technologies, making imagination the only limit.  

“Creativity is going to be the most important thing,” he said. “The winner in all of this … is going to be the creatives.” 

The Garage

At the center of Capital One Auto’s innovation effort is the “Garage,” which Yajnik opened in 2014.  

Located within its auto division at Capital One’s Dallas campus and adjacent to Yajnik’s office, this is a physical space where ideas can be brought to life, he said. 

For example, within its auto division, the bank is exploring the advancement of its chatbot and auto dealer lead management tools with the launches of multi-agentic conversational AI assistant Chat Concierge and its auto dealer lead generation card Muse. 

Granted patents

Muse was patented within the last year, adding to Capital One’s patent portfolio of over 6,000 patents since 1994.

Other recent innovations include:  

• AirKey, a technology that turns a credit or debit card into a tap-based authentication method; 

• Cashier’s check kiosk, a kiosk that issues same-day cashier’s checks on demand; and 
• Auto navigator, a digital car shopping tool. 

Capital One’s patents reflect the bank’s talent, tech stack and structure strategy, Yajnik said. “Those are the three ingredients that come together” to create a culture of innovation, he said. 

Check out our exclusive new bank industry data here.