Online broker TD Waterhouse is set to expand its customer base when it picks up the customer accounts of Charles Schwab’s ailing Australian business in mid January.
Waterhouse will acquire the business on January 11 next year for an as yet, undisclosed sum. Once approved and completed the sale is expected to increase the broker’s customer accounts by 25 per cent, according to TD Waterhouse’s Australian managing director Karen Buck.
“The acquisition will increase our volumes and allow us to achieve greater business efficiencies which we anticipate passing on to customers in the form of further product and services enhancements in the New Year,” Buck says.
In an open letter on the broker’s Web site, Buck welcomed the ex Charles Schwab customers to Waterhouse in a bid to alleviate any concerns following the decision by Schwab to abandon its Australian operations.
Schwab announced on Friday that it would close the doors on its Australian business after only one year in operation.
Charles Schwab chief executive officer Lynnda Sarinske says a number of factors have led to the closure.
“Since launch, the business has faced extremely difficult conditions. With investor confidence in share markets continuing to fall and a recovery appearing further off than previously thought, we have found it challenging to offer Schwab’s quality of products and services at a competitive rate,” she says.
Current Schwab customer accounts will be automatically transferred to TD Waterhouse on 11 January 2002, with customers able to start trading the following Monday.
