Chuck Schwab ponders branch in Shanghai, China
Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia
Charles Schwab, chairman of the brokerage firm that bears his name.
Chuck Schwab[6] visited China in September to meet with government regulators about the possibility of opening a Charles Schwab[7] branch in Shanghai.
"There's a massive opportunity there, they are very underserved," the San Francisco entrepreneur told Reuters [8]Monday.
The Shanghai office would represent a shift in Schwab's thinking. At the firm's 2011 Impact conference for independent money managers, Schwab was critical of China's lack of protection for intellectual property such as trademarks. To be fair, Schwab's China reference was a passing comment in a series of candid remarks that largely focused on Washington's leadership, or the lack thereof. Or to use his words at the time, America is "thirsty for leadership." I assume this year's government shutdown didn't improve his view of matters.
I suspect that China is now talking Schwab's language. Specifically, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone that is being organized to attract foreign financial institutions. Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) has operated a Hong Kong office since 1997.
Schwab also sees the value of being on the ground ahead of competitors courting retail investors. Schwab likened the state of individual investors in China to retail investors in 1950s America, when most did not participate in the stock market and were largely ignored by big brokerages.
Given today's era of 401(k)s, CNBC and $8.95 stock trades, it's hard to imagine how foreign Wall Street was to most Americans 30 years ago, much less 60.
Mark Calvey covers banking and finance for the San Francisco Business Times.
References
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- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
- ^ Google+ (plus.google.com)
- ^ Chuck Schwab (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Charles Schwab (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ told Reuters (www.reuters.com)