Discount Broker Charles Schwab to Lay Off 1,000 Employees

Charles Schwab Corp announced on Monday its decision to lay off around 1,000 employees from the combined workforce of Charles Schwab and recently acquired TD Ameritrade.

This step, according to the discount broker, was taken to “to reduce overlapping or redundant roles across the two firms.”

Charles Schwab agreed to purchase its competitor last year in November for $26 billion, and the deal was closed earlier this month. The combined entity became one of the top discount brokerages in the United States with around 28 million customer accounts and more than $6 trillion in client assets.

“We have begun notifying individuals that their roles have been eliminated and they will be leaving the firm,” the official notification stated. “This will result in a reduction of approximately 1,000 positions or about 3% of the combined workforce of Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.”

The brokerage did not reveal the positions and roles from which the employees are taking the exit.

No More Cuts in 2020

Furthermore, Schwab detailed that these will be the only job cuts in the company for the rest of 2020. Despite the massive job cuts, the brokerage will continue to hire staff for “strategic areas critical to support our growing client base.”

“Employees whose roles are impacted by today's changes will have early access to all newly opened positions and be treated as internal candidates for the more than 1,000 currently open positions at Schwab through their 60-day notice period,” the brokerage detailed.

Apart from Schwab, many other global banks have laid plans to cut a major chunk of their existing workforce. HSBC alone is aiming to cut 35,000 jobs from a number of its offices, including the ones in France and the United Kingdom.