Schwab Slashes 80 More Jobs in TD Ameritrade Integration

The latest cuts were “in no way connected to current events in the financial sector,” a spokesperson said.

Charles Schwab slashed another 80 or so jobs recently as a result of its ongoing integration with TD Ameritrade, Schwab confirmed Monday.

Shortly after completing its acquisition of TDA for $22 billion in October 2020, Schwab said it planned to reduce approximately 1,000 positions, or about 3% of the combined workforces of Schwab and TDA.

Then, that same month, in his opening remarks at Schwab’s virtual Impact conference for RIAs, Walt Bettinger, the firm’s CEO and president, acknowledged that the 1,000 cuts likely would not be the last. Sure enough, Schwab disclosed in early 2021 that it slashed another 200 or so jobs as part of its ongoing integration with TDA.

“As we’ve shared previously, job actions are part of our multi-year integration roadmap to reduce overlapping or redundant roles across the Schwab and TD Ameritrade broker-dealers,” a Schwab spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor on Monday, confirming a report by Ignites, a news site covering the mutual fund industry.

“A small number of teams across Schwab recently took action to address additional duplication of roles and approximately 80 colleagues out of our nearly 35,000 employees were notified that their positions have been eliminated,” the spokesperson said.

The latest cuts followed Schwab’s stock plummeting 33.4%, from $76.20 per share on March 8, just before the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, to $50.77 on March 10. The drop eliminated $47 billion in market value from Schwab, Bloomberg reported. The stock was trading around $52 Monday afternoon.

The Schwab spokesperson was quick to point out Monday that the layoffs were “in no way connected to current events in the financial sector.”

Meanwhile, Schwab is “continuing to hire in strategic areas critical to support our growing client base and our impacted colleagues will have early access to all newly opened positions,” the spokesperson said.

She added: “We are committed to providing everyone who is impacted with support to help ensure the smoothest transition possible, including reemployment assistance and severance benefits. We remain confident in our client-centric approach, the performance of our business, and the long-term stability of our company.”

On Monday, Schwab reported $71 billion in core net new assets from its Schwab Advisor Services business, up 11% from the previous quarter and 8% from a year earlier.