Products September 16, 2009

Schwab Adds Client Feedback Tools

Schwab Advisor Services unveiled enhancements, including a waiver of fees for its merger and acquisition listing service, an online version of its Scorecard tool, and a new client feedback product.

Reported by

The firm said the most recent updates to its Business Consulting Services include:

  • an online Technology Adoption Scorecard that gives advisory firms an interactive tool to track and measure employee adoption of Schwab’s online tools—including cashiering, online account open, eConfirms, eStatements, alerts, and trading—and features a number of new capabilities for advisers. The product was originally launched in hard copy in 2008. The new features available in the online Scorecard include easier access to technology-related resources, tools and training via direct links from the Scorecard, and information that details where a firm is below adoption benchmarks based on other firms’ usage of different technologies.
  • Schwab’s Mergers & Acquisitions Listing Service, which in the past has carried a fee for advisers, is now being offered at no cost for all advisers that custody with Schwab. The service is an online database that connects advisory firm buyers and sellers and enables advisers to maintain anonymity while soliciting interest and collecting information from other advisory firms about acquisitions, mergers, or sales.
  • A new partnership with Advisor Impact that gives advisers preferred pricing on a variety of tools and resources, including its client feedback tool, Client Audit: Enterprise, which helps measure client loyalty and uncover referral opportunities.

Schwab announced in June that it would temporarily waive commissions on electronic equity trades and reimburse transfer of account fees charged by contra brokers for new-to-Schwab clients of independent investment advisers (see “Schwab Waives Some Fees, Plans to Add Tools for RIAs“).

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Products September 16, 2009

S&P Introduces Sec Lending Indexes

Standard & Poor's Index Services has launched what it says is "the first ever public index series designed to measure the average cost of borrowing U.S. equities."

Reported by

According to a press release, the S&P Securities Lending Index Series seeks to reflect the average securities-lending rate for the constituents of the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600, and the underlying GICS sector sub-indexes for all three leading U.S. equity benchmarks. In order to be classified as an eligible security in the S&P Securities Lending Index, a company must be a constituent of the related equity index.

Index constituents must also have a consistently available aggregate weighted average securities-lending rate and are then weighted based on their respective weight in the related equity index. The index undergoes a daily rebalancing to adjust for all constituent and weighting changes that occur in the related equity index.

The indexes are designed to measure the securities-lending rates associated with loans at the intermediary level, typically between custodians and prime brokers. These are private transactions that take place before loans are made to end-borrowers such as option traders, hedge funds, and other asset managers.

More information is available at www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

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