The Charles Schwab Corporation is an American brokerage and banking company, based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1971 by Charles R. "Chuck" Schwab, as a traditional brick and mortar brokerage firm and investment newsletter publisher. In 1973, the company changed its name from First Commander Corporation to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. The company started offering discount brokerage on May 1, 1975, and became one of the world's largest discount brokers.

Schwab operates in four main divisions: investing, wealth management, banking, and trading. The company serves 7.9 million client brokerage accounts, with $1.65 trillion in assets (as of September 2011), from over 300 offices in the U.S, one office in Puerto Rico, and one branch in London. Clients can also access services online and by telephone. In 2009, Chairman Charles R. Schwab received the inaugural Tiburon CEO Summit award for Maintaining a Focus on Consumer Needs.

History