Schwab Earnings Talk MMFs
The Charles Schwab Corporation's latest quarterly earnings release mentions money market funds and cash in a couple of places. CEO Walt Bettinger says, "We continue to leverage our scale to provide products and services that help investors achieve their goals, while delivering great value and making it easier for clients to do business with us. Most recently, we enhanced our money fund offerings by lowering expenses, reducing and standardizing investment minimums, and streamlining share classes across our entire lineup. These changes are part of our work to ensure clients continue to have access to a range of cash solutions offering attractive yields and smart features." CFO Peter Crawford comments, "We've achieved yet another quarter of record financial performance, helped by strong client growth and an improved economic environment. Schwab posted its ninth consecutive quarter of record revenues for the period ending in September. Net interest revenue grew 28% to $1.1 billion as a result of higher short-term rates and growing client cash balances. Following the Federal Reserve's June rate hike, our net interest margin reached 200 basis points for the third quarter – our highest level since the second quarter of 2010. Asset management and administration fees were up 8% year-over-year to a record $861 million, largely attributable to growing balances in advised solutions, mutual funds, and ETFs. These increases in our largest sources of revenue more than offset a 21% decline in Trading revenue due to lower trade pricing. Overall, we produced net revenues of $2.2 billion, a 13% increase." Crawford adds, "During the third quarter, we transferred $1.7 billion in sweep balances to Schwab Bank – $1.4 billion from Schwab One and approximately $300 million from sweep money market funds. In addition, we used $5 billion in Federal Home Loan Bank advances to provide temporary funding for additional investments ahead of future bulk transfer activity. The FHLB advances, the third quarter money fund transfers, and higher client cash levels all helped our consolidated balance sheet reach $230.7 billion as of September 30th; our preliminary Tier 1 Leverage Ratio at quarter-end was 7.7%. We delivered a 15% return on equity for the third quarter, reflecting our ability to combine effective capital management with a relentless drive for profitable growth to help build stockholder value." (See Schwab's release "Announcing Lower Minimums and Expenses for Schwab Money Funds," and watch for more coverage on this in coming days.)
