At Charles Schwab, a Fresh Start After a Close Call
The venerable brokerage risked falling into the SVB vortex, but it’s back on its feet with a new home in Texas.
Chuck Schwab, co-chairman and founder of Charles Schwab Corp., and Rick Wurster, the company’s new CEO.
Photographer: Desiree Rios/Bloomberg
Two years ago, as relatively obscure regional banks in California and New York sputtered toward oblivion, a far better-known pillar of Main Street finance found itself sucked downward by association. Charles Schwab Corp., the brokerage—and, more recently, bank—founded by a guy Americans know as Chuck from countless TV ads, faltered when its paper losses ballooned. Investors feared it was suffering from a similar mismatch of assets and liabilities.
These days, Schwab is back on more solid footing and out of the headlines again. Although it took a year and a half for the company’s stock to fully recover, the unrealized losses have been abating, and Schwab in December upped its 2024 growth outlook to as much as 3.5%. “As storms come, storms also go,” says Walt Bettinger, who stepped down as chief executive officer on Dec. 31.