Charles Schwab closes down office in Singapore

The Charles Schwab Corporation is a bank and stock brokerage firm which is based in San Francisco, California. It was first founded by Charles R.Schawe in 1971 and is ranked as the 13th largest bank in the United States. Also, it still remains as one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States.

The Charles Schwab Corporation recently has changed up its future plans and has published an announcement that the office in Singapore will be closing by the end of this year. They will no longer be opening new accounts for prospective clients. Already existing clients will be provided more information about how the changes impact their accounts.

The statement has been released after almost two years of opening the office in Singapore in 2017. It was said that all client funds will either be transferred to a new broker or returned to clients. It is not yet obvious if the closing down will lead to people losing their jobs. A spokesperson of the company added that the strategy of the company is to focus on regions where it is possible to effectively and efficiently serve retail investors at scale. They have decided to concentrate on markets where they can do it most efficiently for the firm.

As a result, they will keep going forward and focusing on growing the business in Hong Kong, China, America, in the UK and Europe in addition to the U.S. based international service teams.

The financial services first opened their office back in November 2017. The main purpose was to provide investors based in Singapore with better access to the US market.

Singapore office based in 2017

Charles Schwab offers to Singapore-based clients a way to invest a number of assets, US stocks and exchange-traded funds as well as fixed income and mutual funds.
At first, the office was launched after even of the discount brokerage which completed the integration and account migration from optionsXpress.

In 2019, the brokerage and financial advisory services reported a net income of $937 million which was almost 8 per cent higher than last year’s results. In July the total client assets appear to be $3.75 trillion.