The Story of Schwab

Our Mission and Vision

At The Charles Schwab group ("Schwab"), which includes Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and Charles Schwab U.K., Limited, we believe in giving individual investors the power to take control of their financial lives. In the U.S., The Charles Schwab Corporation provides a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. As one of the U.S.'s largest financial services firms, Schwab serves around 6.8 million client brokerage accounts, 570,000 corporate retirement plan participants, 149,000 banking accounts - all representing around $1.3 trillion in client assets.

At Schwab, our mission is to be the most useful and ethical financial services firm in the world. For over 30 years, we have been committed to providing investors with the service and expertise to invest in U.S. markets.

Our Evolution

1970s: A New Kind of Brokerage is Born
In the early 1970s, we started Schwab with a simple idea: To provide investors with the most useful and ethical brokerage services. We wanted to create a new kind of brokerage firm. We resolved to build our business around client needs, to let our customers lead us. Over the next several years, Schwab became a resource for individual investors - a discount brokerage where investors could manage their assets, make decisions and transact business without the conflict of interest and high-pressure sales tactics clients might have faced with traditional brokerages. We helped create a new way for individuals to invest.

1980s: Meeting the Challenges of Growth
In the 1980s, we expanded greatly, as did the investing marketplace. Mutual funds began emerging as the primary investing vehicles for investors seeking convenience and portfolio diversification. We anticipated even more interest in mutual funds and took the bold step in 1984 of creating the mutual fund supermarket concept. By the end of the decade, we took the company public - less than two months before one of the worst market crashes of the century.

1990s: Leading the Online Investing Revolution
By the early 1990s, Schwab was positioning itself for even more growth. In 1992, we took our boldest step since pioneering discount brokerage: Schwab introduced MutualFund OneSource®. In its first five years, OneSource assets grew from less than $2 billion to more than $50 billion. In the mid-1990s, the Internet was just penetrating the national consciousness. Schwab anticipated the power this new medium would have for individual investors, and invested heavily in, and aggressively prepared for, online investing. Just as the Company's move into discount trading 20 years earlier paid off, foresight in the mid-1990s earned Schwab an early and significant leadership position in online investing. From 1996 to 1998, online accounts grew to 2.2 million from 600,000, and online assets grew to $174 billion from $42 billion.

Today
Schwab has created a model of full-service investing in which information flows freely and investors make their own decisions with objective device when they need it.

Embracing the mission of empowering investors, Schwab will continue to innovate and strive to enrich customers' experience in investing. In the years ahead, Schwab believes the investing experience can become even richer, reaching deeply into investors' lives with tools and technology they need to make informed investing decisions.

Charles Schwab will continue leading the way for its customers.