Schwab to Offer Trading in 12 Foreign Markets

Charles Schwab announced plans to significantly enhance its global investing offer through a strategic relationship with Broadridge Financial Solutions, a provider of securities processing and business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions for financial services firms.

• It will let customers trade stocks and currencies in 12 foreign markets starting next year
• Charles Schwab wants to capture investors' growing appetites for broadening their exposure beyond the United States.
• Broadridge will provide the technology needed to support currency trade processing, accounting and reporting, according to a release.

NEW YORK - Charles Schwab Corp said it will let customers trade stocks and currencies in 12 foreign markets starting next year to capture investors' growing appetites for broadening their exposure beyond the United States.

The largest online brokerage said Broadridge Financial Solutions, a securities processing and outsourcing company, will help Schwab customers trade in multiple markets and seven non-U.S. currencies starting in the 2012 first quarter.

Trading initially will be offered in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the UK. New currencies include the Australian, Canadian and Hong Long dollars, plus pounds sterling, Japanese yen, euros and Norway's kroner.

Fidelity Investments almost two years ago began offering stock trading to retail investors in 16 currencies and 25 countries, and Bank of New York Mellon's Pershing and other clearing firms also provide a forex capability to many broker-dealers.

Schwab has been expanding investing services as a growing number of customers seek higher-growth markets as well as a hedge against U.S. dollar weakness.

Last autumn, Schwab introduced trading in over-the-counter equities outside the United States, spurring a 300 percent jump in the first quarter in foreign stock trading from compared with a year earlier.

To accompany the new trading capabilities, Schwab said it will introduce global macro-economic research and currency commentary from in-house and third-party experts, as well as 24-hour customer service.