Trading revenue rose 22% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, as clients stayed highly engaged in the markets, highlighting what President and CEO Rick Wurster called “a record year” for The Charles Schwab Corporation and reinforcing the firm’s position as one of the industry’s most active trading venues.
Speaking on Schwab’s earnings call on January 21, Wurster said 2025’s performance reflected the firm’s client-centric strategy, disciplined execution, and a market environment that encouraged trading. “2025 was a record year for Schwab,” he said. “Guided by our through-the-client strategy and with a supportive market and engaged clients, we delivered growth on all fronts – with clients, across our solutions, and in our financial results.”
Schwab supported 1.9 billion trades in 2025, while daily average trading volume reached a record 7.7 million trades per day for the full year and 8.3 million in the fourth quarter alone. Trading revenue climbed 22% from a year earlier as clients increased activity amid rising equity markets and bouts of volatility. Margin loan balances rose 34% from year-end 2024 to $112.3 billion, signaling a higher appetite for leverage among active traders.
Client interaction extended well beyond trade execution, according to Wurster, who noted that Schwab handled more than 30 million calls to its service centers during the year, while clients logged in digitally about 2.2 billion times, an 18% increase from 2024. “Clients reaching out to our service centers had their calls answered in less than 30 seconds on average,” he said, as Schwab professionals fielded questions “ranging from whether stocks were overvalued, to how to navigate market volatility, to inquiries about cryptocurrencies, and how to protect their wealth.”
Wurster emphasized that traders and investors are seeking more than just low-latency platforms or mobile apps. “Millions of investors consumed our educational content while clients embraced our easy and intuitive digital experiences,” he said. “They showed us they want more than an app when what’s at stake is their financial future. In short, we were there for our clients – when, where, and how they needed us.”
Schwab ended the year with more than 46 million client accounts and nearly $12 trillion in total client assets, ranking first among peers by total client assets, RIA custodial assets, and daily average trades. Wurster pointed to improving client promoter scores across retail, Advisor Services, and workplace businesses as further evidence of sustained engagement.
Account growth continued to fuel trading scale. Wurster said that clients opened 4.7 million new brokerage accounts in 2025, a 13% increase over 2024, while core net new assets totaled $519 billion, up 42% year over year. That expanding asset base supported not only higher trading volumes, but also growth across managed investing and lending. Managed investing net inflows grew 36%, and bank lending balances reached a record $58 billion.
The diversified activity translated into record financial results. Total net revenues climbed to $23.9 billion in 2025, while adjusted earnings rose to $4.87 per share, up 50% from the prior year. Wurster attributed the performance to “strong execution across our strategic focus areas: growth, scale and efficiency, brilliant basics, and our people.”
Schwab also continued to invest in its trading and advisory ecosystem, strengthening its trading, wealth, and lending offers and leveraging artificial intelligence to serve clients more efficiently. The firm launched Advisor Pro Direct, expanded its institutional no-transaction-fee mutual fund platform, and introduced new strategies, including a long-short separately managed account program.
Looking ahead, Schwab’s announced acquisition of Forge Global, expected to close in the first half of 2026, could further broaden its appeal to active traders seeking access to private market liquidity, extending the firm’s reach beyond public markets while maintaining its emphasis on scale and accessibility, according to Wurster.
“We are entering 2026 in a leading competitive position,” Wurster said, adding that Schwab’s momentum remains strong.
