Charles Schwab
Subtitle: How One Company Beat Wall Street and Reinvented the Brokerage Industry
Publisher: Wiley
Published: September 20, 2002
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780471224075
First sentence: May Day-the day when fixed brokerage commissions were abolished-marked a crossroads for the U.S. securities industry and created the conditions for the birth of Charles Schwab &amp; Co. Most brokerage firms responded to deregulation by cutting their commissions rates for institutional investors and raising them for the average investor.
Description: "May 1, 1975 - Despite predictions of calamity and chaos from the high-priced, well-entrenched brokerage industry, the SEC formally abolishes fixed brokerage commission rates. In San Francisco, thousands of miles from Wall Street both literally and figuratively, a one-office firm triumphantly offers no sales commission brokers providing conflict-free discount brokerage services to all investors." "The rest is history. Over the past quarter-century, Charles Schwab & Co. has grown to become one of the world's largest and most influential financial institutions, holding over $850 billion in client assets in nearly eight million active accounts. Charles Schwab himself has become synonymous with the brokerage industry."

"But who is Charles Schwab? And how did his unique combination of deeply felt values, disgust over the mistreatment of investors by traditional brokerage firms, and never-say-die moxie make him one of the most beloved - and accomplished - figures in the history of American finance?"--Jacket.