Charles Schwab Corp.'s third-quarter net income plunged 80%, it said Wednesday, by comparison with the year earlier, when gains from the $3.3 billion sale of U.S. Trust were booked and its customers put $24 billion into their accounts.
The discount broker reported net income of $304 million, or 26 cents a share, down from $1.53 billion, or $1.28 a share, a year earlier. Last year's results included a $1.01 a share gain from the sale of its private banking unit to Bank of America Corp.
Revenue declined 3.1%, to $1.25 billion. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters was for 23 cents a share.
In August, Schwab said it expected to book $75 million in pretax charges for the debt securities it held in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc. The charge ended up being $73 million.
Total assets fell 9%, to $1.3 trillion, amid the 20%-plus drop in stock market values this year. Active brokerage accounts and retirement plan participants at Sept. 30 rose 5% and 14%, respectively. Net new accounts rose 51% in the investor segment, putting the total up 4%. The company has also been pushing into banking services. It now handles 399,000 accounts and mortgages, and home equity loans outstanding surged 77%, to $5.3 billion. Mortgage originations during the quarter totaled $511 million.
