Charles Schwab Corp. said Wednesday said it is looking for an outsider to succeed William L. Atwell as the president of its bank, which he launched three years ago.
His plan to leave the San Francisco company at the end of the month was announced Tuesday.
Mr. Atwell, 55, is also the president of Schwab's individual investor business. Walter W. Bettinger 2d, that business' chief operating officer, will succeed him in that job.
For the bank presidency Schwab will seek someone with "deep experience" applicable to running a relatively young bank within a brokerage company, a spokesman said. The bank's new president will lead its continued integration with Schwab's discount brokerage business, the spokesman said.
Richard Kenny, who remains the bank's chief executive, has reported to Mr. Atwell, who has overseen its strategy.
In an investor-day presentation Oct. 21, Mr. Atwell said the bank's role is to provide credit products to Schwab clients who have relatively small accounts.
"We now have products that can satisfy needs of those smaller investors for borrowing products - mortgages and home equity loans," he said. "That adds a whole new dimension to our profitability stream."
Observers and the company have said the bank has not performed as well as expected. Schwab has blamed some of the problems on having to train brokerage employees who are not familiar with bank products. During the investor day Mr. Atwell said it planned to step up its training program.
In an interview Wednesday, Brad Hintz of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc. said Schwab was late in starting the bank but is "definitely building it."
Mr. Atwell joined Schwab in August 2000, after 23 years at what is now Citigroup Inc. He was appointed to his current job in May 2003.
He is leaving to spend more time with his family, the Schwab spokesman said. Though based in New York, Mr. Atwell had spent more time at the San Francisco headquarters and traveling in recent years, the spokesman said.
In a press release late Tuesday, Mr. Atwell said, "With the firm's turnaround in place, I have decided to retire from Schwab and seek opportunities that do not require me to be away from my home and family to such a great extent."
On an interim basis Randall W. Merk, an executive vice president of Charles Schwab Corp. and its president of asset management products and services, will be in charge of Charles Schwab Bank.
Its assets totaled $5.9 billion at the end of September, 14% more than three months earlier. Outstanding mortgage and home equity loans of $1.8 billion were up 12%.
Mr. Bettinger, 44, who will lead Schwab's individual investor business, has been responsible for its 280 retail brokerage branches, as well as its three call centers. He joined Schwab in 1995, when it acquired Hampton Co., a provider of retirement plan services he had founded in 1983.
