The Charles Schwab Corporation, the 13th largest bank and stock brokerage firm in the United States of America was founded in 1971 by Charles R Schwab. Services offered by the firm include an electronic trading platform that helps trade financial assets such as common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, options, mutual funds as well as fixed-income investments.

As a bank, the corporation offers loans and cash management services, as well as banking and trading services. The firm was initially incorporated as First Commander Corporation in 1971, a subsidiary of Commander Industries Incorporation. In 1973, the corporation was renamed to Charles Schwab Corporation, following Schwab’s acquisition of all the stocks of Commander Corporation. In 1975, the Charles Schwab Corporation set up a stock brokerage firm when the US Securities and Exchange Commission negotiated the commission rates. The corporation opened its first stock brokerage office in Sacramento, California and began operations by offering discounts on brokerage services. In 1978, the corporation had a total of 45,000 clients.  The number was nearly doubled within a year, taking the total to 84,000 clients in 1979.

In recent times, the bank and stock brokerage firm have grown tremendously, making several notable acquisitions including the 401(k) company in 2007, OptionXpress in 2011, as well as the investment management accounts of USAA and TD Ameritrade, recently in 2019. It also acquired ThomasPartners in 2012, further expanding its business operations. ThomasPartners is a renowned asset management firm in the United States. The value of the acquisition was approximately $26 billion in stock.