FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

In addition to historical information, this Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “may,” “estimate,” “appear,” “could,” “would,” and other similar expressions. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements, which reflect management’s beliefs, objectives, and expectations as of the date hereof, are estimates based on the best judgment of Schwab’s senior management. These statements relate to, among other things:

Achievement of the expressed beliefs, objectives and expectations described in these statements is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expressed beliefs, objectives, and expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or, in the case of documents incorporated by reference, as of the date of those documents.

Important factors that may cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to:

Certain of these factors, as well as general risk factors affecting the Company, are discussed in greater detail in Risk Factors in Part I, Item 1A.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Active brokerage accounts: Brokerage accounts with activity within the preceding 270 days.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (AOCI): A component of stockholders’ equity which includes unrealized gains and losses on AFS securities and net gains or losses associated with pension obligations.

Asset-backed securities: Debt securities backed by financial assets such as loans or receivables.

Assets receiving ongoing advisory services: Market value of all client assets custodied at the Company under the guidance of an independent advisor or enrolled in one of Schwab’s retail or other advisory solutions.

Basel III: Global regulatory standards on bank capital adequacy and liquidity issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Basis point: One basis point equals 1/100 ^th of 1%, or 0.01%.

Client assets: The market value, as of the end of the reporting period, of all client assets in our custody and proprietary products, which includes both cash and securities. Average client assets are the daily average client asset balance for the period.

Client cash as a percentage of client assets: Calculated as money market fund balances, bank deposits, Schwab One ^® balances, and certain cash equivalents as a percentage of client assets.

Clients’ daily average trades: Includes daily average revenue trades by clients, trades by clients in asset-based pricing relationships, and all commission-free trades.

Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) Capital: The sum of common stock and related surplus net of treasury stock, retained earnings, AOCI and qualifying minority interests, less applicable regulatory adjustments and deductions. Schwab made a one-time election to opt-out of the requirement to include most components of AOCI in CET1 Capital under the “standardized approach” framework. Beginning in 2019, Schwab must include AOCI in CET1 Capital.

Common Equity Tier 1 Risk-Based Capital Ratio: The ratio of CET1 Capital to total risk-weighted assets as of the end of the period.

Core net new client assets: Net new client assets before significant one-time inflows or outflows, such as acquisitions/divestitures or extraordinary flows (generally greater than $10 billion) relating to a specific client. These flows may span multiple reporting periods. 

Customer Protection Rule: Refers to Rule 15c3-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs): Total revenue trades during a certain period, divided by the number of trading days in that period. Revenue trades include all client trades that generate trading revenue (i.e., commission revenue or principal transaction revenue).

Debt to total capital ratio: Calculated as total debt divided by stockholders’ equity and total debt.

Delinquency roll rates: The rates at which loans transition through delinquency stages, ultimately resulting in a loss. Schwab considers a loan to be delinquent if it is 30 days or more past due.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank): Regulatory reform legislation containing numerous provisions which expanded prudential regulation of large financial services companies.

Duration: Duration is typically used to measure the expected change in value of a financial instrument for a 1% change in interest rates, expressed in years. 

 

Final Regulatory Capital Rules: Refers to the regulatory capital rules issued by U.S. banking agencies which implemented Basel III and relevant provisions of Dodd-Frank, which apply to savings and loan holding companies, as well as federal savings banks.

First mortgages: Refers to first lien residential real estate mortgage loans.

Full-time equivalent employees: Represents the total number of hours worked divided by a 40-hour work week for the following categories: full-time, part-time and temporary employees and persons employed on a contract basis.

High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA):  Assets with a high potential to be converted easily and quickly into cash.

Interest-bearing liabilities: Includes bank deposits, payables to brokerage clients, short-term borrowings, and long-term debt on which Schwab pays interest.

Interest-earning assets: Includes cash and cash equivalents, cash and investments segregated, broker-related receivables, receivables from brokerage clients, investment securities, and bank loans on which Schwab earns interest.

Investment grade: Defined as a rating equivalent to a Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) rating of “Baa” or higher, or a Standard & Poor’s Rating Group (Standard & Poor’s) or Fitch Ratings, Ltd (Fitch) rating of “BBB-” or higher.

Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR):  The ratio of HQLA to projected net cash outflows during a 30-day stress scenario.

Loan-To-Value (LTV) ratio: Calculated as the principal amount of a loan divided by the value of the collateral securing the loan.

Margin loans: Advances made to brokerage clients on a secured basis to purchase securities reflected in receivables from brokerage clients on the consolidated balance sheets.

Master netting arrangement: An agreement between two counterparties that have multiple contracts with each other that provides for net settlement of all contracts through a single cash payment in the event of default or termination of any one contract.

Mortgage-backed securities: A type of asset-backed security that is secured by a mortgage or group of mortgages.

Net interest margin: Net interest revenue (annualized for interim periods) divided by average interest-earning assets.

Net new client assets: Total inflows of client cash and securities to Schwab less client outflows. Inflows include dividends and interest; outflows include commissions and fees. Capital gains distributions are excluded.

Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR):  Measures an organization’s “available” amount of stable funding relative to its “required” amount of stable funding over a one-year time horizon.

New brokerage accounts: All brokerage accounts opened during the period, as well as any accounts added via acquisition.

Nonperforming assets: The total of nonaccrual loans and other real estate owned.

Order flow revenue: Net compensation received from markets and firms to which CS&Co sends equity and options orders. The amount reflects rebates received for certain types of orders, less fees paid for orders where exchange fees or other charges apply.

Pledged Asset Line ^® (PAL): A non-purpose revolving line of credit from CSB secured by eligible assets held in a separate pledged brokerage account maintained at CS&Co.

Return on average common stockholders’ equity: Calculated as net income available to common stockholders (annualized for interim periods) divided by average common stockholders’ equity.

Risk-weighted assets: Computed by assigning specific risk-weightings to assets and off-balance sheet instruments for capital adequacy calculations.

Tier 1 Capital: The sum of CET1 Capital and additional Tier 1 Capital instruments and related surplus, less applicable adjustments and deductions.

Tier 1 Leverage Ratio: End-of-period Tier 1 Capital divided by adjusted average total consolidated assets for the quarter.

Trading days: Days in which the markets/exchanges are open for the buying and selling of securities. Early market closures are counted as half-days.

U.S. federal banking agencies: Refers to the Federal Reserve, the OCC, the FDIC, and the CFPB.

Uniform Net Capital Rule: Refers to Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which specifies minimum capital requirements that are intended to ensure the general financial soundness and liquidity of broker-dealers at all times.

OVERVIEW

Management focuses on several client activity and financial metrics in evaluating Schwab’s financial position and operating performance. We believe that metrics relating to net new and total client assets, as well as client cash levels and utilization of advisory services, offer perspective on our business momentum and client engagement. Data on new and total client brokerage accounts provides additional perspective on our ability to attract and retain new business. Total net revenue growth, pre-tax profit margin, EPS, return on average common stockholders’ equity, and the Consolidated Tier 1 Leverage Ratio provide broad indicators of Schwab’s overall financial health, operating efficiency, and ability to generate acceptable returns. Total expenses, excluding interest, as a percentage of average client assets, is a measure of operating efficiency. Results for the years ended December 31, 2018 , 2017 , and 2016 are as follows:

⁽¹⁾ 2018 includes outflows of $93.9 billion from certain mutual fund clearing services clients. 2017 includes inflows of $34.5 billion from certain mutual fund clearing services clients.

2018 Compared to 2017

Net income increased by $1.2 billion , or 49% , in 2018, driven primarily by business momentum, a supportive economic environment for much of the year, and lower corporate tax rates. Continued execution of our ‘Through Clients’ Eyes’ strategy helped us succeed with clients. In 2018, clients opened 1.6 million new brokerage accounts, helping bring active brokerage accounts to 11.6 million at the end of the year, and core net new assets totaled $227.8 billion , up 15% from the 2017 total. Our strong net new assets largely offset lower market valuations, and we ended 2018 at $3.25 trillion in total client assets.

Total net revenue grew by $1.5 billion , or 18% , in 2018 primarily due to an increase of $1.5 billion , or 36% , in net interest revenue. The Fed raised the overnight federal funds target interest rate four times in 2018 for a total of 100 basis points. The growth of total net revenue resulted from higher interest rates due to the Fed’s rate normalization, and also from higher

interest-earning assets, which reflect both client cash allocations and the transfer of sweep money market funds to bank and broker-dealer sweep. As we progressed with these transfers, the corresponding money market fund asset management and administration fee revenue naturally declined, yet positive inflows in advice solutions, Schwab equity and bond funds and ETFs, and other third-party mutual funds and ETFs kept asset management fees at $3.2 billion , limiting the decrease to 5% from 2017. Record trading activity from our clients resulted in trading revenue reaching $763 million , an increase of 17% from the prior year.

Our increase in total expenses excluding interest of $602 million , or 12% , reflected our 2018 investments to support and fuel our business growth, including hiring additional client-facing and other employees and technology project spending, as well as an increase in marketing and a special stock award of $36 million to our employees. Even with these increases, expenses as a percentage of client assets remained consistent at 16 basis points , and pre-tax income increased 25% to $4.6 billion in 2018, resulting in a pre-tax profit margin of 45.0% . As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Tax Act), taxes on income decreased 19% in 2018, resulting in an effective tax rate of 23.1% . Overall, we generated a 19% return on equity and diluted EPS of $2.45 for the year.

During 2018, the Board of Directors raised the quarterly cash dividend 63% to $0.13 per share and authorized a $1.0 billion Share Repurchase Program, which we completed during the fourth quarter. These actions reflected the Company’s strong financial performance and our confidence in its long-term success; they also demonstrated that effective capital management at Schwab can support both healthy business growth and more meaningful capital returns to stockholders.

2017 Compared to 2016

Net income available to common stockholders rose in 2017 by $434 million, or 25%, from the prior year, resulting in diluted EPS of $1.61 in 2017 – an increase of 23% compared to $1.31 in 2016. Net revenues improved by $1.1 billion, or 15%, while expenses excluding interest increased $483 million, or 11%, compared to 2016.

Our steady focus on operating ‘through clients’ eyes’ and our goal to continually challenge the status quo helped Schwab achieve another strong growth year in 2017. Clients opened 1.4 million new brokerage accounts in 2017 and trusted Schwab with $198.6 billion of core net new assets in 2017, up 58% from 2016. Total assets receiving ongoing advisory services grew 21% in 2017 to $1.70 trillion. Our success with clients was bolstered by strength in the equity markets – the Standard & Poor’s 500 ^® Index (S&P 500) finished 2017 up 19% from the prior year end. Also in 2017, the Federal Reserve increased the overnight federal funds target interest rate three times for a total of 75 basis points. Strong client activity and the positive economic environment resulted in total client assets rising to $3.36 trillion as of December 31, 2017 – a 21% increase since the end of 2016.

Schwab’s 2017 financial results demonstrate the power of our financial formula working as designed: our robust business growth supported strong revenue growth through multiple sources in 2017, which we combined with continued expense discipline to drive significantly improved profitability.

Net revenues grew by 15% in 2017 compared to 2016 through contributions from our two largest revenue sources. Net interest revenue rose 29% while asset management and administration fees grew 11% in 2017 when compared to the prior year. Trading revenue declined in 2017 by 21% due to price reductions announced early in 2017.

Consistent with our expectations, expenses grew 11% in 2017 compared to the prior year. This increase was primarily due to higher incentive compensation and higher staffing related to our strong asset gathering, as well as expenses related to project spending and third-party fees tied to higher balances in our asset management business.

This combination of revenue growth and expense discipline drove the pre-tax profit margin to 42.4% – an increase of 240 basis points over the prior year. Earnings before income taxes rose 22% to $3.7 billion in 2017 compared to $3.0 billion in the prior year.

The effective tax rate in 2017 was 35.5% compared to 36.9% in 2016 reflecting the benefit from the adoption of new accounting standards requiring the recognition of a portion of tax deductions related to equity compensation partially offset by the remeasurement of deferred tax assets and other tax adjustments associated with the 2017 enactment of the Tax Act.

Subsequent Event

On January 30, 2019, CSC publicly announced that its Board of Directors authorized a new Share Repurchase Program to repurchase up to $4.0 billion of common stock, and declared a four cent, or 31%, increase in the quarterly cash dividend to $0.17 per common share. The share repurchase authorization does not have an expiration date.

Current Regulatory Environment and Other Developments

On October 31, 2018, the Federal Reserve issued a notice of proposed rulemaking and the Federal Reserve, the OCC and the FDIC jointly issued another notice of proposed rulemaking. The two proposals would establish a revised framework for applying enhanced prudential standards to large U.S. banking organizations, with four categories of standards that reflect the risks of banking organizations in each group. CSC would be in Category III based on having $250 billion – $700 billion in total assets .

The Federal Reserve proposal, which would make large savings and loan holding companies such as CSC subject to enhanced prudential standards, would tailor those regulatory requirements relating to capital stress testing, risk management, liquidity risk management, and single-counterparty credit limits based on the category of the banking organization. The proposal provides that Category III banking organizations would be subject to annual supervisory stress testing and biennial company-run stress testing. The interagency proposal would similarly tailor requirements under the agencies’ capital rule, LCR rule, and the proposed net stable funding ratio rule for banking organizations in each category. Under the proposal, banking organizations in Category III would not be required to calculate their risk-weighted assets using the “advanced approaches” framework or to include AOCI in calculating their regulatory capital; however, they would continue to be subject to the supplementary leverage ratio and any future countercyclical capital buffer imposed by the banking agencies.

Although the Federal Reserve announced in its proposal that additional capital planning and resolution planning proposals would be issued at a later date, the agency did indicate that all Category III firms, including savings and loan holding companies, would be required to submit annual capital plans that would be subject to qualitative and quantitative assessments evaluated as part of the CCAR process.

The comment period for both proposed rules ended on January 22, 2019 and the impact to Schwab cannot be assessed until the final rule is released.

On December 22, 2017, P.L.115-97, the Tax Act, was signed into law, and became effective on January 1, 2018. Among other things, the Tax Act lowered the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%.

As a result of the reduction of the federal corporate income tax rate, generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (GAAP) require companies to remeasure their deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as of the date of enactment, with the resulting tax effects accounted for in the reporting period of enactment. Schwab recorded a one-time non-cash charge to taxes on income associated with the remeasurement of net deferred tax assets and other tax adjustments related to the tax reform legislation in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our 2018 effective income tax rate was reduced as a result of these changes.

In May 2016, the Federal Reserve, the OCC and the FDIC jointly issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would impose a minimum NSFR on certain banking organizations, including CSC. The comment period for the proposed rule ended on August 5, 2016 and the impact to the Company cannot be assessed until the final rule is released.