Charles Schwab shares trim losses as CFO defends firm

Charles Schwab has $7.38T in assets including retirement, brokerage and banking accounts

Charles Schwab trimmed some of its losses after being on pace for the worst percentage drop on record as investors scramble following the FDIC’s closure of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, which was followed by the emergency backstop by regulators late Sunday. 

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
SCHW THE CHARLES SCHWAB CORP. 81.39 -1.37 -1.66%

The stock dropped over 19% midday, the worst shellacking since November 2020, before nearly halving those losses mid-afternoon as Chief Financial Officer Peter Crawford moved to assure customers and investors the firm is on solid footing. Below are excerpts from the release.

HOW SILICON VALLEY BANK GOT BURNED 

New assets

  • February core net new assets totaled $41.7 billion, our 2nd largest February ever (trailing only February 2021, the height of the meme stock craze). Our growth and momentum have continued into March, with daily net new assets averaging nearly $2B per trading day month-to-date

Outflows not troublesome

  • Client bank sweep cash outflows in February were about $5 billion lower than January and March month-to-date daily average outflows are tracking consistent with February

Over 80% of our total bank deposits within FDIC insurance limits

  • Among the five highest ratios of the top 100 banks in the United States

We have access to significant liquidity

  • This includes an estimated $100 billion of cash flow from cash on hand, portfolio-related cash flows, and net new assets we anticipate realizing over the next twelve months.

Charles Schwab

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S&P 500 financial stocks fell over 4% as contagion jitters spread through the sector. Bank stocks including First Republic, KeyBank, Huntington Bancshares and PacWest were all down more than double-digits. 

REGULATORS SHUT SIGNATURE BANK

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
XLF FINANCIAL SELECT SECTOR SPDR ETF 51.34 +0.08 +0.16%
FRC NO DATA AVAILABLE - - -
KEY KEYCORP 19.48 -0.04 -0.20%
HBAN HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES INC. 18.01 +0.01 +0.06%
PWAC NO DATA AVAILABLE - - -

President Biden in a speech on Monday reassured Americans about the safety of the U.S. banking system. 

"During the Obama-Biden administration, we put into place tough requirements on banks, like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, including the Dodd-Frank law, to make sure the crisis we saw in 2008 would not happen again," Biden said during his brief, five-minute speech. 

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